Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone
by Bloxanoid
Summary: Two amnesiac brothers join a feisty Fennekin, an over-zealous Pikachu, and a down-to-the-ground Piplup in hopes of unlocking the secret to their pasts. However, they soon are wrapped up in a conflict that stretches far beyond what their imaginations can handle...
1. Smile, Kiddo

**You can find the link to how I perceive Sans and Papyrus in this story on my profile page.** **The move sets depicted are not the same move sets that will be utilized in this story.**

 **For the title picture, I drew the middle section, the other two sections do not belong to me and credit for them belongs to the original owners.**

 **Now let's do it!**

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Sans woke up after what seemed to be an eternity in the dark with his hands tied behind his back and his legs tied together, his head spinning from who knows what. When he tried to remember how he got there and why he was there, he only pulled a blank. All he knew was that his name was Sans, he had a brother named Papyrus, and he REALLY WANTED TO GET OUT OF THIS ROPE. He knew he and his brother got along well, but most of the minute details were missing, basically his entire past except for basic recollections of his bro.

"S-SANS? ARE YOU THERE?" echoed a voice to his left. Sans nudged his head so it faced left, his head seemingly out of proportion to what felt comfortable. Now that he thought about it, that same thought could also be applied to rest of his body.

"p…papyrus?" he shouted towards the source of the voice.

"SANS! YOU ARE THERE!" Sans smiled. At least his brother was okay.

"hey paps, are you tied up too?" He heard the rustling of limbs to his left. "sounds like it."

"S-SANS…I'M SCARED…"

"it's okay paps, we'll be alright-."

"Would you two can it in there?" echoed a voice from afar, "I'm trying to get some sleep?"

"i would'tin' say that if i were you," muttered Sans. He heard more rustling to his left.

"SAAAAANS NO!" They both froze as they heard the movement of stones up ahead.

"That's it, I'm coming in." Sans heard Papyrus gulp to his left as he watched light appear from behind a corner. Around it was a weird giant ball of rock with a face, arms, and legs. It held a torch up to illuminate it's way in the cave.

"wow, you really 'rocked' your entrance, hehehehhehe-"

"SANS, STOP IT PLEASE!" The thing did not look amused by Sans' pun.

"I don't like puns, so if you don't want your FACE smashed, I'd shut it."

"hehe…."

"EXCUSE ME GOOD SIR, BUT WHAT ARE YOU?" The thing looked down at itself, back at where Sans thought Papyrus was, and tilted its…everything.

"You have to be kidding me. I'm a Graveler…?"

"the heck is that?" The Graveler was even more confused.

"The others said they found a Cubone and a Marowak passed out in the woods, and I didn't believe them until they brought you two in. I didn't think you guys would be this much of a handful." Sans blinked. Cubone? Marowak? What the-.

"um you're confusing me, what's a cubone, what's a marowak?"

"I'll whack you on the head if you don't shut up."

"hehe, nice one."

"DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM!" The Graveler brought the torch closer to Sans' face, causing him to lean back slightly.

"You two don't _know_ what Pokémon you are?"

"pokémon? what's a pokémon?" The Graveler let out a huge bellow.

"If you aren't a Cubone, then what are you?"

"i'm a….a…." Sans realized he didn't remember who he was, or who he once was.

"S-S-SANS…YOU LOOK A BIT ODD…" Sans began to turn his head towards Papyrus' voice.

"whaddaya mean paaaa…-" Sans froze when he saw Papyrus, who was looking at him with wide eyes and a shocked expression. His entire face was covered by a skull, but it didn't seem like the skull was actually _his_ , like he expected. His body was different shades of brown, his arms and legs thicker than normal, and there was a tall bone leaning on the wall next to him. He had a…tail? With a SPIKE? The familiar red scarf still covered the top of his torso and his neck.

"uhhhhhh…." The Graveler looked annoyed and amused at the same time.

"S-SANS, AM I SEEING THINGS?" The Graveler pulled a mirror from _somewhere_. That somewhere Sans did not want to know.

"Look at yerselfs." The Graveler held the mirror up in front of Sans and Papyrus, and slowly tilted up until it showed both of their faces.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAAaaaaaAAAAA!" they both screamed. Sans and Papyrus both started thrashing crazily, causing small rocks to drop off the top of the cave. The Graveler looked around nervously and put the mirror away.

"Would you two calm down?!" Sans looked down at himself. His body was similar to that of Papyrus', his hands, arms, feet, and legs all covered in flesh. His stomach was tinted light brown compared to the dark brown color that defined the rest of his body. He felt something on top of his head, perhaps a skull like Papyrus had? He also still had his comfortable dark blue hoodie jacket on.

After a few minutes of thrashing, he and Papyrus finally calmed down.

"Now listen here-" The Graveler was interrupted by what seemed to be red and yellow striped prairie dog, who had run all the way to where Papyrus and Sans were being held.

"What is it Watchog?" Graveler said, turning around to face the Watchog, whose teeth kept trembling.

"S-sir, the Union sent out an exploration team to find these two."

"And?"

" _They're here."_ The Graveler mumbled something to himself before picking up the torch and turning back to Sans and Papyrus.

"You two, don't move, don't make a sound, or I'll have one of my Geodudes beat the pulp out of you.

"whatever you say dude." The Graveler ran out of the cavern with the torch, leaving Sans and Papyrus alone again.

"SANS, WHAT DO WE DO?" Sans figuratively itched his head inside his mind, since his hands were tied up. He tried to remember anything, something, what could he possibly do to escape?

Suddenly, he lifted his head up, having an idea. He could still move his fingers behind the rope; perhaps it would work. He squeezed his fingers into fists, focusing as much as he could into manifesting a…

When Sans opened his eyes, he saw a floating bone. The light bathed the two brothers in aqua light.

"SANS, HOW DID YOU…" Sans winked with his left eye then squeezed his fists again. The bone flew above him and slid behind his back, breaking the rope that held his hands together. Sans brought his arms in front of him, able to see his hands. He had small, brown fingers, enough to grab stuff but still different from what he was used to. He grabbed the bone next to him and broke the rope tying his feet together with it. He went to one knee then stood up, using the bone to help him. This body was not very forgiving to him.

"SANS?"

"i gotcha paps." Sans summoned another bone and used it to break Papyrus' bonds. Papyrus stood up and grabbed his longer bone and walked up to him.

"SANS, NOW WHAT?" Sans looked around nervously then turned back to Papyrus.

"follow, but stay silent." Sans ruffled his hoodie jacket then tip-toed up the cave. His new feet were well suited to this cave environment. Papyrus followed quietly behind him.

Sans put his back flat against the cave walls right up next to the corner, adjusting his new skull mask so it didn't accidentally fall off. Papyrus was right next to him.

"SANS, WHAT DO YOU SEE?" Sans nervously poked his head around the corner, making sure his skull mask didn't chip any rocks off the cave. He saw a torch light somewhere off in the distance, but it was coming from around a corner; they were in a labyrinth of tunnels.

"dammit." Sans turned to Papyrus with nervousness in his eyes.

"WHAT IS IT SANS?"

"i can see a light, but i'm not sure where it's coming from nor if it's the union or our captors." Sans suddenly heard footsteps coming from one of the left tunnels and pushed Papyrus back behind the corner. He held his breath as the steps came closer.

"This way!" shouted a feminine voice. The footsteps continued to reverb through the tunnel and eventually trailed off.

"SANS, DO YOU THINK THOSE WERE THE RESCUERS?"

"lets go paps." Sans grabbed Papyrus' hand and ran down the now empty tunnel, trying to listen for any further commotion. He heard someone cry out and the crack of thunder down one of the pathways. However, the exit was not far; he could feel it. He looked back and forth between the end of the tunnel and the noise, nervous.

"SANS, ARE YOU OKAY?" Sans was silent for a bit.

"hey paps, can you use that bone?" Papyrus lifted up the long bone he was holding and looked at Sans.

"SANS, WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?"

"come on paps. if we're to find anything out about our little predicament, we have to follow where these…pokemon go." Sans turned around and ran down the hallway the voice went, Papyrus right on his tail. He saw a yellow flash come from around a corner and the cries became louder.

Sans turned around the corner just in time for a rock to nearly hit him in the head. Before he could do anything to move away from it, some yellow mouse knocked it out of the way. Sans was wide eyed as the thing looked at him.

"You! Get out of here! It's not safe here!" she shouted. It was the same voice that he heard earlier. The yellow mouse jumped out of the way of the red and yellow prairie dog, who tried to bite the mouse. The yellow mouse charged with electricity and unleashed a thunderbolt towards the prairie dog, but it got up and dodged it.

"what?"

"SANS, LOOK OUT!" Sans was too distracted by the yellow mouse to notice that the prairie dog had jumped towards him. Papyrus threw his giant bone and it whacked the prairie dog in the head, who sprawled to the ground with swirls on their eyes.

"nice one paps." Sans surveyed the situation. It seemed like there were three "Union" Pokemon: that yellow mouse, some sort of light blue penguin, and a weird tan and orange fox thing. There were a few captors, including the Graveler and the Watchog Papyrus had just knocked out. Sans grabbed his bone like a sword and readied himself.

"SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?"

"fighting." Sans rushed into the fight, causing most of the Pokemon to freeze momentarily and look at him.

"What are you doing?" shouted the yellow mouse. A brown and black furred dog took down the yellow mouse while she was distracted.

Sans teleported himself in front of the fox thing and blocked a karate chop from a blue humanoid with a karate belt. He pushed the humanoid back and whacked it with his bone causing them to stumble back holding their face. Sans felt something trembling in his fingers.

"jump," he shouted to the fox. Sans slammed his bone into the ground, causing the ground around him to shake violently. The red humanoid was thrown around and hit the side of the wall, collapsing with swirled eyes.

"Uh, thanks?" Said the fox, her voice filled with concern. Sans jumped up and ran towards the dog, who had bitten the yellow mouse.

"Don't let that Pikachu escape!" shouted the Graveler, burying the blue penguin in a pile of rocks. Sans' blue eye glowed as he lifted the dog away from the Pikachu, grinning as he did it.

"paps, join in."

"I THINK I'M GOOD SANS." The Pikachu dropped to the ground as Sans threw the dog to the ground and came down upon it with his bone, smashing it in the head with it. The dog's eyes turned into swirls. Why did he feel so good doing this? And why did these attacks feel so natural to him?

"H-Hey, I told you to get out of here." The Pikachu limped towards Sans, clutching a bleeding puncture wound in on her shoulder.

"you guys looked like you need some help." Sans' blue eye glowed as he lifted up the Graveler.

"What kind of magic is this?"

"Who taught you to use Psychic?" asked the fire fox, trotting over towards Sans.

"psychic? what do you mean psychic?" The light blue aura faded and Graveler fell onto the ground, rolling up into a ball in the process.

"Have a nice trip! HEHEHEHEHEH!" He began to speed right towards Sans, who was not ready for the attack. His little arms tensed up as he waited death.

Just before he would have been hit, he was pushed out of the way by the Pikachu, who took the damage instead. She sprawled to the right, blasting by the Marowak Papyrus and escaping the cavern. The Graveler unrolled and pointed at Sans.

"I'll let you escape this time, but mark my words, it won't be so easy in the future!" The Graveler rolled off as Papyrus attempted to throw a Bonearang at him. Sans and the fire fox ran over to the motionless Pikachu, whose eyes were also swirls just like the rest and the blood from her arm pooling on the floor. She had a green scarf and a green bow attached to her right ear, and she had a heart shape at the end of her tail. She wasn't responding to any stimuli.

"Oh god, this looks really bad," muttered the fire fox. "We have to get Faith back to the Union, stat. The fire fox poked at a badge pinned to a green bandanna she wore around her neck, but it fizzed out.

"Hey Fennekin, any help here?" The Fennekin rolled her eyes as she looked at the rumbling rock pile. At this point Papyrus had rejoined Sans at the fallen Pikachu.

"I have a name you know, Cameron. I could just call you Piplup." The Piplup pushed it's way out of the giant pile of rocks the Graveler had dropped on it and waddled over to the Fennekin.

"Please don't Amber. I don't need any of your sass right now…" Cameron got a glimpse of the fallen Pikachu. Sans could see he also had a green bandanna around his neck just like Amber the Fennekin.

"Faith doesn't look good...did you try your badge?" Amber poked the badge again, but it just fizzed a second time.

"It's broken Cameron. You'll have to do it-"

"excuse me., sorry for interrupting, but where are we? what is this place? why are you here?"

Both Cameron and Amber turned towards Sans, unamused. He leaned on his bone and winked.

"sorry...?" The two turned back towards each other.

"I don't know Amber; Faith's condition seems almost too unstable to just warp back-."

"You're just scared of badge warping." She smirked at him and light red blushes covered his face. He covered it up with his flippers.

"N-no I'm not…"

"Well too bad. You warp Faith back with you. I'll take our targets back with us on foot. It's not that far." Cameron placed one of his flipper's on Faith's limp body and tapped the badge with the other flipper. A beam of light instantly enveloped the two and they disappeared from the cave. Amber turned towards Sans and Papyrus.

"You two, Marowak and Cubone, follow me. We have to go back to home base by foot, and it's too late and send you back home." Sans and Papyrus looked at each other curiously; what was home?

"THANK YOU LITTLE FOX!" exclaimed Papyrus, his red scarf limp against his body. Amber nodded.

"Don't mention it. It's what we do." Sans tilted his head, confused. He swung his bone around like a flag bearer on a color guard as he followed the trotting Amber down the pathway. She occasionally puffed out a small flame that illuminated the cave for a moment before disappearing as smoke.

"what do you mean? this is your job?" Amber froze again and turned to look at him, her face implying that she thought he was dumb.

"Yes, this is our job. We're part of the Exploration Union, a group of Pokémon who help explore the world and save monsters from harm. You haven't heard of the Union? It's one of the biggest things around here."

Sans turned to look at Papyrus, who had an expression just as confused as his was. He shrugged so Sans continued on.

"yea…i heard of you guys. i just…uh…wanted to make sure you were _truly_ part of the exploration union."

Amber led them to the edge of the tunnel system, the dark night sky hovering over the green forests below. Amber's ears twitched a little as she began to hop down the mountain, directly towards the forest. Both Sans and Papyrus stopped at the opening, reluctant to continue.

After hopping down a couple rocks, Amber turned around and looked up at the two brothers.

"Well…are you guys coming?"

Sans and Papyrus looked at each others. Sans wasn't sure if going with this Pokémon was a great idea, but neither of them really knew much about how they got there, who they were, or where to go. Maybe this Fennekin/Amber could help fill them in.

Sans turned back to Amber.

"sorry, we were just talking." Amber's ears dropped down, annoyed.

"Well, come on then! We're going to be out here all night at this rate!"

"SANS, ARE YOU SURE?"

"yea paps, lets go." Sans and Papyrus began jumping down the mountain with their stubby little brown legs, following the Fennekin into the dark forest towards an unknown fate.

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 **I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **See ya next time!**

 **-Blox**


	2. The Union

Amber trotted through the dark forest, whistling to herself as she puffed embers out from her mouth to provide minor illumination. The Cubone with the blue hoodie, who called himself Sans, used his stick as a walking cane to follow behind her. His Marowak brother, Papyrus, stayed upbeat and didn't seem to break stride…or have any ability to be tired. While she tried to stay a bit positive and calm on the outside, numerous thoughts were spinning inside her head. These two numnuts seemed out of place, unusual candidates for Graveler and his cronies to captures. Based off what she saw from Cubone, he was very capable of holding his own in battle, and the same could nearly be said for Marowak; yet why were they captured, and why did they seem completely useless when it came to basic facts about Pokémon? Most of the victims the Union rescues are scared shitless and ready to leave, but these two were attracted to the conflict and were slow to leave the dungeon. Not only that, but Faith was hurt pretty bad, probably the worst she's seen from anyone during her two weeks with the guild.

"hey, are we there yet?" Sans' remark broke Amber's train of thought and whistle tune. She turned around, annoyed.

"Close." She turned left past a tree and weaved through a couple, trying to remember the way they took here. She looked down and tapped her badge, but it still fizzed. Bibarel and Bidoof would need to fix it when she got back.

Her eyes darted back and forth as she looked for the exit. But there it was! A dim orange tint on the grass. The Exploration Union was on the hill just outside the entrance of the Dark Forest.

"It's right outside the exit of the forest!" she chirped. The Marowak suddenly ran in front of her and took off towards the light.

"I, THE GRRREAT PAPYRUS, AM EXCITED TO MEET THESE THINGS!" Amber's eyes shrunk as she saw Papyrus run ahead.

"hehe, that's my bro."

"Papyrus! Get back here!" She ran after him, leaving Sans in her dust, limping as fast as he could.

"NYEH HEH HEH!"

"Don't exit the tree-!" Papyrus stepped on the cage trap located just outside the entrance. The metal bars slid up out of the ground and enclosed Papyrus, who frantically started hitting them with his bone.

"NYEH?!" The cage dropped into the ground.

"line." Amber brought her front right paw to her face; now she had to deal with this in addition to her badge, since Faith was out of commission.

Sans' pupils disappeared, turning his eyes black for a moment. She jumped back, afraid, for a moment, but his eyes returned back to normal. He looked at her, confused.

"hey, what is it?" She shook her head and blinked.

"N-nothing. Hehe." She slowly walked up towards the forest exit with Sans, making sure not to trigger any of the traps or rush by the guards. She stepped in between the two trees that served as a watchpost for the Exploration Union, not only symbolically but literally.

A hatch in the wood flipped open, revealing a little room inside the tree's trunk. One of the guard Riolus was standing inside with their blue Union Security hat on, looking at her. She adjusted her green bandanna and smiled.

"This is Amber of Team Green, requesting entry." The Riolu looked over her bandanna and badge before turning it's head towards Sans.

"And him?" She looked at Sans, who was leaning on his bone and winking.

"sup." She rolled her eyes.

"He's just one of the Pokémon we rescued last night." The Riolu suddenly burst out laughing and hit it's paw multiple times on the counter.

"PFFFFF, you 'rescued' them? Seriously?"

"Yes."

"And don't tell me that Marowak who just rushed through the gate was one too-."

"He was." The Riolu snorted and laughed even louder. Amber frowned, annoyed.

"Oh man, wait until I tell the others about this. Go on in." The guard Riolu pressed a button behind the counter and a secret door opened on the side of the hill. As she walked in, Amber swore she heard the Riolu say something about how new teams never rescue anyone before they closed the secret window. She started to blush nervously; the guard wasn't wrong. Most new exploration teams fail their first few missions.

"so…is this the union?" asked Sans. She rolled her eyes again.

"Yes…and don't say anything or look at anyone funny. You might get me killed."

"sure thing foxy."

"Don't call me that."

"ok."

Amber hopped down the spiral staircase at the end of the dirt hall, humming to herself to try and stand calm. Word spreads fast in the Union.

She hopped off the last stair and landed on the grassy floor of the meeting room, also called the Hub by Union members. It was about one-hundred-fifty feet long, ninety feet wide. and extended about fifty feet up, the entire floor covered by grass and flowers. In the middle of both of the longer walls were tunnels, one of which led to mess and the other to living areas. Bulletins for rescue requests could be found to the left and right of the tunnel leading to the mess hall and the repair shop was to the right, located off the east wall. A window covered the entire west wall, giving anyone nearby a view of the sea, which stretched all the way past the horizon. One could also take an additional set of stairs down to supplies, the infirmary, and other areas where only experienced explorers were allowed to access. Amber hadn't gone to any of those places yet, but she would need to try today.

It was past lights out, so the Hub was only illuminated by the bright yellow flames of the Lampent shaped lanterns hanging on the walls and the Chandelure chandelier on the ceiling.. The only noises came from the grass moving in the small breeze that came from some excuse for an AC system. She saw Sans was looking around, both confused and in awe, then tapped him on the shoulder.

"huh?"

"Follow me." She walked around the spiral stairs and went up to the repair shop, where Bidoof was asleep on a stool, snoring softly.

Amber walked up the counter and pressed the bell, jolting Bidoof away.

"Uwa! No not deforestation!" She waited for Bidoof to calm down before speaking. His eyelids lowered when he saw Amber.

"Oh. It's you." She glared at him angrily.

"Yes, it's me, and my badge is broken and it needs to be fixed." Bidoof looked over the countertop at Amber. He sighed.

"Here just…give it to me." Amber unclipped her badge and handed it to Bidoof.

"We'll handle it tomorrow morning. Pick it up at noon."

"Thanks," she mumbled. Amber tugged on Sans' hoodie again.

"Come." She started walking down towards the union master's office, where she was going to take Sans to wait before she went to find Papyrus and check on Faith. Sans had his bone strapped onto his back with a few pieces of grass woven together and his hands were in his jacket pockets.

"does everyone around here go by what they are, or-."

"Yea, most people actually just go by what their species is. Everyone here has names, but it's kind of a respect and 'professional attitude' thing that goes on here. People who insist on being called by their actual name are kind of looked down upon." She began to sweat a bit.

"so…that includes you?"

"I suppose so." The floor turned to wood as they stepped out of the Hub and into the hallway leading to the mess. They passed by a couple doors leading to maintenance rooms, Amber having to occasionally pull Sans away before he entered them. Visitors weren't allowed in there.

Finally, she arrived in front of the giant oak door that belonged to Noctowl, the Pokémon who ran the Exploration Union. Sans looked up at the giant door, a bit confused.

"so…uh…i would say i a'door' this, but it doesn't seem very special…" Amber turned to Sans.

"I'm going to look for your brother Sans. The Union Master will take care of you for a bit." She knocked on the door and heard movement from the room behind it. He must be available now.

The giant door swung open, revealing the brown owl. Noctowl was wearing a pair of bifocals with circular gold rims. He held a stack of papers with his wing and looked down at Sans and Amber. She gulped nervously as he turned to look at her.

"Amber…what did we say about bringing visitors into the Union?" She looked away.

"Not to…" She turned back and piped up.

"But sir, this is the Cubone that someone requested to find." Noctowl adjusted his bifocals and smirked.

"You…Green Team…completed a Tier A assignment?" Amber smiled.

"Yes, we did! Although, Faith kinda got the crap beat out of her…she's probably in the infirmary now." Noctowl turned back to his papers.

"It was the buzz a bit, seeing one of the newbies down. Of course, that's a great concern, but it got this place riled up for a short time." He noticed Sans, who was looking up at the five-foot tall owl.

"sup."

"Why is he wearing a hoodie…" Noctowl's eyes suddenly widened and his bifocals almost fell off his head.

"Wait…Amber, I'll look after him. Go see your teammates."

"But sir-."

"Do as I ask." Sans looked at Amber, bewildered.

"Sorry…" She backed up a few feet then took off running further towards the mess hall, leaving Sans now on his own.

Noctowl reopened his office door.

"Come on in Cubone." Sans stood around and looked around.

"Cubone?" He looked up, surprised, when he realized Noctowl was referring to him.

"what?"

"You may come in now." Sans nervously stuck his hands in his hoodie pockets and walked in. The room was around twenty by twenty feet, a desk with the nametag "Union Master Noctowl" sitting on the top. There were various pictures of Pokémon with different colored bandannas on, likely different exploration teams that they've had in the past. Noctowl spread his papers out on the table then gestured to one of the side chairs.

"Go ahead, sit down." Sans jumped up, grabbed the side, and shimmied onto the cushion. Noctowl took his bifocals off, wiped his face with his right wing, then looked at Sans.

"So…you're the Cubone Team Inferno found the other day, huh?" Sans shrugged.

"what? i don't get it…" Noctowl sifted through his papers and handed Sans one of them. He struggled to hold the giant paper with his little arms, but he could see a blurry picture of what looked like him and Papyrus passed out in the grass.

"but…i woke up in a dark cave…"

"Team Inferno was on a delivery assignment when they came across you and a Marowak in a red scarf passed out. Obviously, they were confused since you don't typically find a Cubone and a Marowak in the middle of a forest. They didn't have the resources to return you, so they sent Charizard back here to report the incident. By the time we sent a second response team…you were gone." Sans blinked a couple times. He didn't remember any of this.

"Soon enough, I posted an anonymous report calling for your rescue." He coughed a couple times.

"You do, _remember_ being in the forest, right?"

"no…?" Noctowl grabbed the paper from Sans' grasp and put it back in his pile.

"How did they rescue you? Team Green, I mean." Sans shrugged.

"they came, they beat up my captors, saved me and my bro. what else do you think happened?" Noctowl shook his head.

"It had to be more than _that_. Team Green's members are all new recruits of the Union. Everyone thought they were insane taking a Level A assignment after failing numerous Level Fs-."

"i'm sorry, but what? none of this makes sense." Noctowl raised an eyebrow, curious.

"You haven't heard _anything_ about the Union, at _all?_ "

"nope."

"Are you from around here?" Sans sweated under his skull mask nervously. Should he tell him he doesn't remember _anything_ about his past?

"um…yeah, not far. just in the mesa a few miles away." Noctowl nodded and wrote something down on a piece of paper.

"Ok, I see." He glanced at Sans again.

"Are you _sure_ nothing else happened while you were held captive?" Sans looked around.

"i mean, i helped them fight off my captors-"

"WHAT?!" Noctowl stood up and slammed his wings into his table.

"uh, is there something wrong?"

"Show me what you can do." Sans looked around, confused.

"in here?"

"Yes." Sans pulled his bone out and whirled it around a couple times, Noctowl almost amazed just by watching Sans grab his bone from behind his back.

"are you sure?"

Noctowl nodded.

"ok then…" Sans swung his bone, mimicking bashing in a foes head. He then proceeded to jump off the chair, lightly tapping his bone into the ground. The floor shook slightly, but that was intentional so Sans didn't topple everything over.

"Hmm…" Sans then focused his energy into the tip of his bone and his left eye turned black and blue. A few floating bones appeared out of the air and flew around the room a bit, then dissipated.

"What in the…" Noctowl nervously scribbled down something on a paper before frantically looking at Sans again.

"Who _are_ you?"

"i'm sans, sans the…" Sans' voice trailed off. What was he again? He climbed back onto the seat.

"cubone."

"And you came with?"

"my brother, papyrus. he's a-"

"Marowak…" Noctowl now looked extra concerned. He quickly dialed a number into the phone next to him and picked it up with his left wing.

"Captain Lucario, Union Security, what is it Noctowl?"

"Free the Marowak." There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Are you sure?" asked the voice through the phone.

"Yes, and send him to Team Green's dorm. Don't let him out of your sight."

"As you wish sir." The phone clicked and Noctowl put the phone back on it's stand. He sighed and put his wing on his head.

"uh…is something wrong?" Noctowl restacked his papers and smiled at Sans.

"No no, nothing is wrong." He got up and started pacing around the room, glancing at Sans every once in a while.

"So…I can house you here tonight, but we're going to have to return you home tomorrow."

"home?"

"Yes, home." Sans slouched back into the chair, but there was an opening instead. He grabbed the back of the chair just as he was about to fall down. He scrambled back up onto the cushion.

"But…I think I can do something for you."

"ye?"

"Most Pokémon need to apply and be accepted to the Exploration Union. But I'm going to allow you to join us."

"but why…"

Noctowl hesitated for a moment.

"Well…just call it an honor."

Sans shrugged.

"works for me i suppose."

Noctowl walked back over to his seat and sat down.

"You don't have to accept this, you know. It's hard and dangerous work being part of the Exploration Union." Sans jumped off the seat cushion and landed on two feet and one hand.

He had multiple options here. While it seemed that constantly going into battle and dungeons were dangerous, he and Papyrus had nowhere to go, didn't know where to go, and had no leads on how they got there. Maybe he just got a concussion and he'll gain his memory back later. Maybe the Union had the answer to his little predicament…but even then he may be scorned, pushed around, hated. It seemed like the entire place made fun of Team Green. However, for some reason, he felt that it was something he could handle, something that he experienced and dealt with before. Maybe he could help them rise to greatness, along with Papyrus?

"eh, whatever, i'm in." He reached his small hand out towards Noctowl, who shook it.

"Ok, I guess that settles it. Team Green dorms are across the Hub, take the second door to the right, then down two floors. You should be there then."

"thanks noctowl."

"Don't mention it." Sans pushed open the small door within the huge door and almost ran straight into a giant green foot. When he looked up he saw a dark green gecko-like creature with green leaves extending off it's body. The creature looked at Sans before entering Noctowl.

"Sceptile, thanks for-." The door shut before Sans could hear anymore.

Sans turned down the hallway and began walking back, nervously glancing around. He suddenly heard pitter patters behind him, and saw Amber running back, breathing hard.

"oh heya." Amber slowed down when she got closer.

"So…? What did Noctowl say?" Sans shrugged.

"not much. he did offer me a spot on your exploration team." Amber frowned.

"Oh…he did?"

"yea, and i took it."

Amber sighed in reponse.

"It's already enough dealing with my friends, now I have to deal with a clueless mor-" Sans was still watching and listening, walking as he went. Her voice trailed off.

"Anyways, if you're staying for awhile I should show you to your room. Come." Amber trotted ahead of Sans, running towards the Hub.

Sans adjusted his skull mask and picked up his pace slightly. He realized that he could technically lift himself up with telekinesis, but that didn't seem like the smart thing to do. Noctowl was surprised by his ability to summon bones like his out of thin air. Anyhow, if he was to get anywhere closer to solving this mystery, he knew it laid in the Exploration Union. It was just a gut feeling.

He just hoped Papyrus would be okay with this.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	3. First Day On The Job

"RISE AND SHINE SANS, WE GOT A NEW DAY AHEAD OF US!" shouted

"ugh uwa, wha?!" Sans jolted up on his straw-filled mattress, rubbing his eyes to free up his vision. The weirdly colored shape blob in front of him morphed into four figures, one of whom was in a sling.

"papyrus? when did you get here?!" His red scarf and white armor shined in the sunlight beaming through the circular window on the side of the room.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, GOT HERE LAST NIGHT." He brought his hands down and started twiddling his thumbs.

"ALTHOUGH, FALLING DOWN THAT CAGE WASN'T THE MOST FUN, NYEH." He posed again.

"BUT DO NOT WORRY! I WAS OKAY!" Sans chuckled.

"that's my bro." The slinged Pikachu nudged her head towards the door. Her left arm was wrapped in bandages, some parts tinted pink. Her green bow was ragged.

"you're…faith, right?" She nodded.

"And you're welcome for that. I saved you there." Cameron the Piplup laughed.

"Psch, but you forgot to save our reputation. Everyone's talking about how we got our butts 'kicked' last night." Amber winked at Sans.

"Of course, we couldn't have done it without you, but don't say anything about it, okay?"

Sans shrugged.

"if you guys say so."

"SANS, WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"

"ok papyrus, i'm moving." Sans stood up and jumped off his small mattress, which was the top bunk of one of four in the room. Four of the other beds, presumably Papyrus and his new "friends," were already remade and tidied up. He grabbed his bone lying against the wall and stumbled to join the others. Papyrus rubbed him on the head when he caught up, but Faith stopped the group.

"Hold up, I almost forgot!" She ran over to her bed, the one opposite from Sans and Papyrus', and pulled out a box from underneath the framing. She opened the lid and grabbed two green bandannas. Faith presented them to the two brothers.

"If you're going to be part of Team Green, you better wear these!" Sans looked at Amber, who shrugged.

"It's Union protocol. You might as well wear it if you're with us. And don't worry, I told Faith last night when she came back from the infirmary." Sans grabbed the bandanna and tied it around his neck, the green cloth covering up his hoodie.

"lemme just adjust this real fast." Sans slipped off the hoodie and put it back on so the jacket covered part of the bandanna.

"now that's more like it." Papyrus had taken his bandanna, rolled it up into a thinner rag, and tied it around his skull. He posed, causing Faith to giggle.

"SO BROTHER, WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" He closed his eyes dramatically.

"so cool." Papyrus laughed. Faith pushed open the door with her good arm and let the others through.

Sans slipped his bone into his self-constructed back strap and walked down with his group towards the Hub. The sun was now providing light for the Union, which drastically changed Sans' perception of the building. He could see the various dips and dives on the roof, the way the windows were made to make formations with the light, and the minor details of etched Pokémon faces in the stone walls. Not to mention other teams were also heading down to morning role call, many of the others much bigger than him.

"Hey look, it's Team Green!" shouted a giant brown bear to their left.

"Wow, they're so amazing, they ' _completed_ ' a Level A assignment on their second week," mocked a bluish-gray duck. All of the other Pokémon started laughing, causing the others to sink in a bit to their bandannas. Sans and Papyrus were unfazed.

The big bear leaned in towards Sans.

"So…you're new here, huh? How'd you get into the Union?"

"special invitation from the union master."

"Oh I see. Why'd you join Green?"

"cuz i chose to." The bear sighed.

"Well lemme tell ya kid. Green is the laughingstock of the Union. It's a base name given to the new team who the Union thinks is the most likely to fail or drop out. Don't know why you'd join them, knowing that even the Pokémon 'round here who aren't Union members are aware of this." Sans shrugged.

"i guess i like giving myself challenges."

"SANS, LET'S GO!"

"sorry, gotta run."

"Have fun Cubone."

Sans ran up to catch the rest of his group as they entered the Hub. Light bathed the room as it flowed through the window pointing towards the see, blinding not only Sans but everyone else as well. Noctowl was wearing a nightcap, yawning to himself as he stood at the podium, waiting for the morning roll call to start. Sans noticed that most of the Pokémon wore variously patterned bandannas or scarfs, all of them appearing multiple times; other teams. Compared to the other Pokémon, Team Green looked like kindergarteners in a high school parking lot; it was almost _asking_ to be run over or be treated like a baby, one of the two.

Soon, Noctowl tapped the microphone on the podium, releasing an ear-wretching high-pitched squeal to reverb throughout the room.

"S…sorry. I'm kinda tired."

"You're always tired Noctowl," muttered someone near the front.

"I heard that Bidoof."

"Aw, shucks."

Noctowl coughed a couple times before starting.

"Okay, good morning Explorers. I'm looking forward to another great day of rescuing and training." He rustled some papers.

"Role call. Team Inferno."

"Here," shouted a Charizard in the front, who had a red and orange piece of cloth tied around their head. Or at least that's what Amber had told him a Charizard was.

"Team Typhoon."

"Here," exclaimed a giant dark blue tortoise with a blue and white bandanna.

"Team Forest."

"Here," replied the Sceptile Sans saw last night. The world really was a small place.

Noctowl continued on through a few more teams before he swapped papers.

"Okay, onto recruits. Team Rock."

"Here!" shouted a small rock with fists at the front with a brown scarf. He was surrounded with multiple versions of himself.

"Team Orange."

"Here," muttered a tiny bird pokemon at the front, obviously exhausted from last night.

"Pidgey, what did we say about partying up late?"

"Not to…"

"Good. Mess cleaning duties today for you and your team."

"Darn." The rest of the crowd laughed.

"And finally…Team Green." Snorts and giggles reverbed throughout the Hub. That big bear was right; they were the laughingstock.

"Present!" shouted Faith, trying to be brave amidst the laughter. Sans admired that attempt. He certainly wouldn't be the one to do it.

"Okay explorers, now on to-."

"Wait sir, why don't we have Team Green talk about how they rescued that Cubone and Marowak over there. Or even better, let _the victims_ tell us."

"Golduck, now is not the time for that-."

"What do you want Golduck?! What do you have against us?" shouted Amber, upset.

"Psch, you guys are a _joke_. It's likely one of you fabricated this whole charade yourself and grabbed two random Pokemon from the nearby village to make yourselves feel better."

"We could take you and Team Typhoon on any day Golduck," replied Faith, swinging her sling around. Sans was taken aback by this; Team Typhoon seemed to be one of the top dogs here. Team Green was in no shape or condition to provide any sort of resistance against a powerhouse.

"NYEH! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM WITH THE YELLOW MOUSE!" Sans grabbed his brother's scarf.

"papyrus, don't."

"I-I MEAN, I'M NOT! NYEEH?" All of the Pokemon burst out, hollering and snorting.

"See?! Those two are a _perfect_ fit for those losers."

Cameron rolled his eyes.

"See Faith, this is why I don't trust you all the time."

Faith ignored his remark.

"Hey, that Cubone there has been pretty silent, what does he have to say about this?" Golduck pointed towards Sans, leading the rest of the hub to look over as well.

"Okay guys, order in the Hub here. Let's not take this out of hand."

"No, Noctowl. I wanna hear what he has to say."

"Golduck, I'm warning you right now." Golduck turned frantically towards Noctowl.

"But sir, it's not a regular occurrence that any Team Green or recruit team completes a Level A mission in only their second week of training."

"We have more important things to discuss. Pipe down."

Golduck turned away, submitting to authority. The others did they same. Sans caught Noctowl's glance, a silent you're welcome.

"Now, the past couple days we've had a huge spike in disappearances. Today is no different."

"Noctowl," began Charizard, "so you're saying-"

"I think it's relatively set in stone that all these disappearances are linked. The problem is we don't know why or how." Most of the Pokémon on the powerhouse teams sighed.

"Noctowl, don't tell me we're sending out another scout team," muttered the big blue turtle, who Amber had told him was Blastoise.

"We are sending out another scout team." Moans and groans insinuated.

"Sir, Team Cloud hasn't returned yet and it's been three days, and neither has Team Earthquake," exclaimed Sceptile. "It's suicide, especially since those two were the best teams we had."

"Why don't we send Team Green," whispered Golduck, "anyhow, they were able to do the impossible already, why can't they now?"

"Team Hurricane, you're going out to explore the Dark Sea today, report back as soon as you find either one of the missing Pokémon or the whereabouts of the other two missing teams. Dismissed." The other two Pokémon on Team Hurricane started pushing Golduck around as they exited the room.

"Team Inferno, you're in charge of training the recruits today. Everyone else is free to take assignments and do whatever they need to do. Dismissed."

"HURRAH!" Everyone except for Charizard and the recruit teams went their separate ways and dispersed throughout the base. Noctowl stepped off from his podium, whispered something to Charizard, then proceeded to head towards his office.

"so…you do this everyday?" asked Sans. Faith shook her head.

"Nah, only every three days. The other two we're able to do assignments like the others or we have mess hall duty."

"Most of the time it's mess hall duty," muttered Cameron, kicking his flippers around.

Charizard marched up to the small recruits.

"Recruits, this way." He turned towards a set of stairs. "Go down that. I will meet you there." Charizard flew out of the room the way he came, probably because he was too big to actually take the stairs.

Team Green and the other two recruit groups slowly made their way towards the staircase.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I'M SO EXCITED!"

"I wouldn't be," replied Cameron, "normally it's something horrible like dodgeball but with attacks or several mile runs."

"THAT SOUNDS LIKE FUN!"

"Until you actually experience it, yes, it does."

"Besides," chirped Amber, "we have these two now. Maybe we'll…actually stand a chance this time."

Sans felt a bit awkward. It seemed like they were trying to seem better than they actually were, mainly just so they didn't break down under stress.

"how'd you guys end up here in the union?"

"You know, we filled out the paperwork and background checks and that stuff," replied Faith. "It's actually quite difficult to get into. Maybe about 10% of those who apply get accepted by the Union, and out of those 10% only a few actually become full-fledged explorers."

"Yeah, but I'm kinda regretting it," laughed Cameron. The five followed behind Team Rock as they descended the staircase. Hearing the groans from the others that had already reached ground floor, Cameron, Faith, and Amber all groaned in response.

"NYEH? WHAT IS IT?"

"We have agility work today," complained Amber. "Lucky _Faith_ gets to sit this one out because of her arm injury."

"agility work?" That didn't sound like any fun to Sans. He'd rather loaf around.

"Basically they have one of the official Union members try and blast us to death with all they have and whoever isn't unconscious at the end wins," explained Cameron. "It's not so much winning as it is not losing."

"great."

The staircase dropped into a giant dirt room, kept bright by the intense electric bulbs that hung from the ceiling. There were indentations in the ground that resembled some sort of basketball court. Heh, dunking.

Once all the recruits were scattered around the court, Charizard entered through a secret hatch in the wall.

"Okay recruits, you know the drill. Last team standing wins today's competition and earns five points towards overall standings." The recruits started running around the gym while Sans stood still.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" shouted Faith from the sidelines. "Only the top team in the recruiting class remains a part of the Union, so make sure to give this all you got!"

"wait, what?!" Sans turned back around from Faith just in time to dive out of the team from getting toasted by a Flamethrower.

"Stay focused Sans, keep your legs moving!" she shouted again.

"geez, chill out." Sans slid his bone out of it's sheath/holster and ran around Charizard, who was busy targeting other teams. Charizard swung around and whipped through a group with Dragon Tail, launching a Geodude and smashing them into the wall.

"Keep your body relaxed and fluid, you never know when someone is going to strike!" Charizard spewed out a Flamethrower at Cameron, who blocked it by spitting out bubbles to douse the flames. Charizard combo'd it up with a Dragon Tail to the face. Cameron flew into the wall, his eyes spirals.

"Not bad, but you have to be ready for those."

"NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus gleefully skipped along the side of the gym, unaware that Charizard was coming towards him.

"papyrus! look out!" Sans ran over to Papyrus and spun his bone around in front of him, dispersing Charizard's fire. He pushed Papyrus back then hopped over Charizard's tail. He saw Charizard's face change ever-so slightly to one of surprise, but it soon became focused once again.

"Hm." He thrust upwards slightly then dropped back down, gliding towards the other side of the gym, his wings glowing. Amber ducked out of the way, her bandanna scraping Charizard's wing. The Pidgey from earlier wasn't so lucky, getting thrown towards the sidelines, almost nailing Faith in the head.

"Amber! You have to be faster than that!"

"I don't think that comment was necessary Faith!" she shouted in response, narrowly rolling under a Dragon Tail.

"Stay focused!"

"Then stop distracting me!" Amber stood up, but got fried by a Flamethrower, charring her fur black. She limped over out of the field and collapsed on the sideline.

"sheesh, someone needs to get those two friendship counselling, right papyrus?" He turned to look for his brother, but he wasn't there.

"papyrus?" He glanced towards Charizard and saw Papyrus mounted on his back.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I HAVE SUMMITED THIS MIGHTY BEAST!"

Sans' eye glowed brightly in the back of his head.

"papyrus, get off from there!"

Papyrus' exclamations had gotten Charizard's attention, who began to spin around, producing fire as he did.

"NYEH HEH HEEEEEEH?!" The fire continued to build up into a sphere around Charizard, causing the remainder recruits to back away.

"papyrus!" Sans ran as his little legs to take him towards the spinning fire dragon.

"NYEEHHH!" Papyrus lost his grip on Charizard's back, flying through the fire sphere. He slammed into the wall, his scarf a bit charred. He dropped to the ground knocked out. Looks like Sans was the only one left for his team, while Team Rock and Team Orange still had two members left. He looked over and saw the other three sitting on a bench with the others who were knocked out, watching him. Amber seemed annoyed to have her fur messed up and Cameron held his head in pain. Faith was still as happy as ever.

"Come on Sans you can do it!" Sans rolled his eyes and continued towards Charizard. Many of the other recruits were already out of breath, but Sans had only moved about thirty feet from where he started, so he was still relatively fresh. He felt lively, much more than what he thought he was used to. Maybe he could make good use of this new energy.

Charizard, meanwhile, had finished dealing with the last pesky Geodude on the other side of the gym.

Sans slid to a halt, his bone out in a ready position, as Charizard turned to face him. He heard murmurs off to the side.

" _Oh, he's so finished now."_

" _Welp, looks like_ _ **nobody**_ _is getting points today."_

" _The rookie is the last standing? What a surprise."_

"C'mon Sans, you can do it!" shouted Faith.

"Shush, or the others are going to poke at us like last time," scolded Cameron.

Charizard flew above Sans.

"Hm, so I see. Team Green actually has a last stander." Sans twirled his bone around.

"ye, and you got a problem about that?"

Charizard laughed.

"It's not so much that as that in order to earn you points, you have to survive…the Crusher. All recruits who are the last standing get it their first time around to give them a taste of _real_ battle, and seeing as you're from Team Green, I'm not expecting much resistance." Sans felt his blue eye twitch. No, not here. Not the time.

He saw in the corner of his vision that Papyrus had gotten up and sit on the bench. His skull was a bit bruised and so was the rest of his body, but he was okay in the end. Thank god.

"SANS! GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND SHOW HIM WHAT YOU CAN DO!"

"See, Papyrus knows whats up," laughed Faith. Cameron made a pouty face.

"Are you ready?"

"how polite." Sans held his bone at the edge and pointed it upwards towards the towering Charizard.

" _He's doomed."_

"en garde."

Charizard took off towards the roof of the ceiling and dove straight down, surprising Sans. He quickly brought his bone up to block a Dragon Tail, dove to dodge a Flamethrower, and leaped over a soaring Charizard Aerial Ace. He touched down, sweating.

Charizard let out a huge bellow.

"Aha! A real challenger!"

"i may be small, but i can pack a punch."

"COME ON BROTHER!"

Charizard flew in with an Aerial Ace, leading Sans to run up to slide under the wing. However, Charizard suddenly stopped his charge and unleashed a Fire Spin, burning Sans' hoodie and catching him off guard.

"uwa?"

"Game, set, match." Charizard Aerial Aced through the stunned Sans and he smashed into the wall, the world going black instantly.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	4. Rescue Mission

_During his sleep, Sans heard multiple voices talking to his left and right. However, Sans could not see a single thing. He felt like he was standing, his hands in his hoodie pockets. His body felt a bit different from what he had now…_

" _so, what do you think?" asked Sans, against his own will. This must be some fragment of a memory._

" _SANS, I DON'T LIKE THIS AT ALL," muttered Papyrus, his voice coming from a much higher elevation. Proportions were off._

" _Sans, you have to make some sort of decision," an unknown voice echoed. "You don't have an opinion?"_

 _Sans heard gargling from somewhere in front of him._

" _you know PWEPFFH#94, i don't like to take sides when it comes to things like this." The name he said was distorted by static._

" _Well you two, y$* h*vE t0293-" The voice phased away and Sans felt his body fall away from the ground…_

* * *

He awoke lying under hard, white covers in what seemed to be the infirmary. There was an ice pack wrapped around his head, his skull mask hanging on the wall above him. He turned to the right and saw a nightstand with a small Lanturne office lamp and a cup of ice water. He thought he wasn't out that long, seeing that the others got back up after a relatively short time, but he wasn't sure, since Charizard had decided to go crazy on his butt and probably took it easy on the rest.

Sans carefully took the ice pack off of his head and felt where it was placed. He felt the presence of a bruise there; honestly, Sans never remembered legitimately being injured before. The thought of such never came to his mind; it was always a life or death situation for him.

He glanced forward, seeing an identical bed across from him, which was empty. Judging from the quietness of the room, it seemed like he was alone.

At least, until he heard the pages rustling to his left.

His head jerked, causing his brain to hurt a bit. Amber was sitting on a stool next to his bed, her red and yellowish-tan fur all cleaned up and her bandanna bright green. She wagged her tail as she read some sort of magazine about PokéFashion. How peculiar.

Sans laid there and waited, waiting to see if Amber would notice that he was awake.

"ahem."

Her ears perked up and she closed the magazine and placed it back on the table, smiling.

"Oh hey, you're finally up. Charizard really got you good there."

"how long were you watching me sleep?"

She glanced away and made an awkward-looking face.

"Oh, you know…not that long. Besides, Faith told me to watch you so we could get you back to your dorm room after you wake up."

"mhm, sure." Sans reached up above his bed and grabbed his skull mask off a hook on the wall. He slid it back onto the top of his head; much better. The sun wasn't burning his eyes out anymore.

Amber hopped off the stool and pushed it to the side, then grabbed Sans' bone and handed it to him. He grabbed it from her.

"thanks."

"No problem." Sans hopped out of the oversized bed and his legs collapsed underneath him. Amber gasped.

"A-are you okay?"

"yea, i'm all good. no need to worry about me. my legs are just still half asleep, hehe." Sans used his bone to prop himself up.

"ok, let's go."

Amber looked concerned, but she decided to go with it and slowly led the limping Sans back from the infirmary.

"ugh, how long was i out?"

"Only a couple hours. It's past lunch time now." Sans' stomach rumbled. He suddenly had an unusual craving for condiments.

"i mean, i could eat-"

"It's too late, the mess hall is closed. We have a mission to pursue now anyways."

Sans rose both of his eyebrows, but it's not like it really mattered since the skull mask covered most of his face.

"so i get the crap beaten out of me and now we're going on a mission? after what happened yesterday?"

Amber shrugged.

"You know, sometimes I don't think Faith has any perception of stress or energy. The girl is always so electric, you know."

Sans grinned.

"that was a pun, wasn't it?"

She looked away.

"I guess so, but that wasn't intentional…"

"heh, i like puns." Sans slid his bone back onto his hoodie sheath. His legs had woken up, so there was no need to use it as a stick anymore.

"so her sling is off?"

"Well…not exactly. We can only send up to four members on a mission, and since she's injured I'll be in charge of the operation. I still have to take orders from her, though."

Sans looked around, trying to wake himself and forget that nightmare.

"and all of of you have gone through that torture, yea? the crusher i mean."

"No, you're the first from our team." She giggled.

"And you're brand new."

The two shambled onto the Hub grass and saw Faith looking at a sheet of paper in front of the bulletin board. Cameron and Papyrus surrounded her.

Papyrus heard the footsteps and turned to wave at Sans.

"BROTHER, YOU CAME!"

"hehe, can't miss out, ya know."

Amber skipped towards Faith.

"So, what do we have?" Amber asked. Faith looked up from the paper.

"Basic Level E, rescue op. A Butterfree lost her Caterpie in the Lost Forest. Nothing we haven't done before."

"Yeah, but seeing as we failed all those previous times I'm not expecting much," snorted Cameron. Faith whirled around and hit Cameron with her sling.

"Jesus, I'm just being realistic…"

Sans noticed that Cameron never seemed to believe in…anything. He tried, but it was like that, deep inside, he knew he wouldn't succeed.

"Ugh, Cameron, you'll never learn, will you?"

"And will you never learn about realistic goals and schedules? We just got our butts kicked and you want us to _go on an assignment?_ When we haven't even truly accomplished _one?!_ "

Faith walked closer and got up in Cameron's face.

"What do you mean we didn't accomplish one?! We just did last night!"

"Yeah, only because those two boneheads jumped in and helped us, and you ended up sustaining a serious injury! I don't call that a victory Faith."

Amber stepped in.

"Hey, can you two shut it? We can't work as a team like this," she complained.

Sans sunk into his hoodie. This team wasn't really a _good_ team, were they? The Piplup and Pikachu turned away from each other, neither accepting defeat.

"Regardless Cameron, Amber is leading today's rescue mission. Go talk to our client outside Butterfree Village, then bring Caterpie back to her ASAP. You got that?"

Amber sighed. Apparently the argument was over, just like that.

"You got it Faith!" She brought one paw up then slammed it down, posing.

"Let us go team!"

"yaaaaaaaaay," Sans cheered sarcastically.

"You need more energy Sans," muttered Faith. "I'm going to go lay down, it's been a long day."

"THE LITTLE YELLOW MOUSE IS RIGHT BROTHER," Papyrus exclaimed, leaning on his bone. "YOU MUST BE MORE POSITIVE!"

"ok."

"Off we go!" Amber ran back towards the spiral staircase and trudged up, followed by Cameron, Papyrus, and…Papyrus carrying Sans.

"UGH, SANS! DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" Sans dreamt of the soft straw mattress of his room as he used Papyrus' scarf as a pillow.

"c'mon bro, just one minute-"

"NO!" Papyrus threw Sans straight up, causing his blue eye to activate in fear. He flopped into the ceiling, face planting into the dirt pathway that led to the secret entrance to the Exploration Union. Amber stepped over him, followed by Cameron, and Papyrus…carrying nothing.

"ugh." Sans stood himself up, shaking his head vigorously. He readjusted his skull and his eyes blurred as the sunshine flew into his eyes.

"jesus, i feel like i've been inside all day."

"That's because you've been inside all day Sans," replied Cameron.

"oh yeah, that's right." Sans adjusted his little green bandanna and new badge and trudged along with the group towards Butterfree Village, which Amber had pointed out on the map.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO READ A MAP?" Papyrus had shouted.

"Well, do you?"

"NO…"

"Oh." And that's how that conversation went.

After several loops around the same tree and a chasm crossing, they finally made it to Butterfree Village. The beautiful, flowery treehouses and service buildings filled the area, the forest blossoming. It must be springtime.

The four Pokémon walked slowly along the cobblestone path, their feet pitter-pattering as they took little steps towards the main tree, a giant apple tree that served as the main landmark point for most explorers and travelers in the area. Many Pokémon, especially Bug Types, stayed here overnight. Maybe they would need to too. At least that's what Faith said to Sans.

Amber slowly walked up to a pink Butterfree who seemed to be roaming around, nervous. She assumed this was their client.

The Butterfree flapped away, softly.

"Don't burn me, please! I didn't do anything to you!"

"Woah woah," Amber whispered, "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here on the behalf of the Exploration Union."

The pink Butterfree got closer.

"So you saw my request about my missing Caterpie? We were just taking a walk around the outskirts of the Dark Forest when he suddenly ran into the trees! I tried to follow him, but he was gone!" The Butterfree started crying.

"I miss him…"

"Don't worry ma'am," said Cameron, "we'll handle it. Or we'll try to."

"Oh thank you dears, I'll be here waiting for your return!"

"WE'LL GET YOUR SON BACK IN A JIFFY BUTTERFLY!" shouted Papyrus, posing.

"hehe. we'll do our best." The group left and walked towards the part of the Dark Forest the Butterfree had described to them.

"Welp, seems like this is the place," stammered Amber, clearly nervous.

"hey, no need to be nervous here. it's just a little bug, what trouble could it be in?"

"Thanks Sans."

"NYEH HEH HEH! LET'S GO!"

Amber led the team into the treeline, no other Pokémon seeming to be nearby.

"I thought there would be at least _some_ wild Pokémon Amber, or just angry ones…" trailed Cameron.

"We aren't in the Lost Forest yet Cam, stay sharp."

"How will we know?" he replied.

"because of the fog."

"What fog?" he gawked.

"that fog."

Cameron turned around to see what Sans was pointing at.

"Oh, that fog."

Across from the Pokémon was an unusual cloud of fog that enveloped the forest within, likely where many wild or insane Pokémon resided to hide from society. The other teams had told spoopy stories about the place, likely just to scare him. He knew better than that.

"O-Oh…" coughed Amber, "lookie here, it's the Lost F-Forest…"

Papyrus pushed Amber closer to the fog.

"Hey Papyrus?!"

"NYEH! WE MUST ENTER AMBER! THE JOURNEY AWAITS US!"

She gulped.

"Ok…here we go…."

They got into a straight line (for whatever reason; Sans wasn't aware of the effectiveness of the formation), and wandered on into the trees. The inside of this part of the forest seemed to be structured like a labyrinth, a maze of winding turns and tree walls, with no clear path of where to go. Perhaps there was another few things that could happen here.

"Hey guys, watch out for items!" Amber shouted, "You never know what you'll be able to get. You can put it into my pack if you find any. We can take whatever we find and put it into our team storage back at Home Base."

"Psch, we always get KO'd before we can reach that point," scoffed Cameron.

"Shut up Cameron- UWA!" Amber was shoved back by an unknown assailant, who happened to blast her back towards the others with a gust of wind. Sans got directly bulldozed by the flying Fennekin.

"ugh, ow," he muttered, standing up. Amber covered her mouth with her paws.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

"hehe, it's okay."

Cameron had gone up to the front to face the bird Pokémon, which he shouted was a Pidgey who kept exclaiming random facts about hot dogs, not saying that was a bad thing to Sans.

"GUWA!" Cameron blew a stream of bubbles out of his mouth, popping the Pidgey right in the beak.

"Agh!" The Pidgey fell over, their eyes swirls. Solid kill.

"Easy one, but likely the easiest we'll see," muttered Cameron, "let's keep moving Amber."

"Ay, of course." Amber picked up the 52 Poké dropped by the downed Pidgey and continued on their way. Sans stepped over the unconscious body, a bit concerned. Did the Exploration Teams just knock out whoever stood in their way? Sure it was self defense, but it seemed a bit cruel.

"Aha! The staircase!" Amber suddenly screamed.

"WHY WOULD THERE BE A STAIR CASE IN THE FOREST?!"

"Something about dungeons," replied Cameron, "it's really stupid but you just learn to go along with it." The group walked down into more forest, despite what basic logic and knowledge of how the world worked dictated. Floor 2, here we go.

"uh, how did we walk down stairs into more forest?"

"Don't question it Sans-HOLD UP! Wild Sunflora!" The giant sunflower bumbled right towards them.

"I got this," Amber shouted. She reared back and poofed out a little flame, which caused the Sunflora to stumble back.

"Kya!" Amber jumped up and scratched the flower in the face.

"NYEH!" Papyrus threw his bone, thwacking the Sunflora in the gut. The flower collapsed to the ground.

"Huh, new record. We didn't die on Floor 2," muttered Cameron. Sans didn't like this feeling; they weren't done.

"hold up, watch out!" The Sunflora got up and charged a giant ball of energy with it's face.

"It's using Solar Beam!" screamed Amber, "Dive out of the way!" The four all ducked in time to dodge the happy beam of sunlight.

"Thanks Sans," she replied, spewing out more flames towards the Pokémon. Its arms caught fire and it fell to the ground, this time for good.

"L-let's keep moving," muttered Cameron. This wasn't a very friendly place for him; it seemed to have some pretty powerful Grass types around.

Amber took a sharp left then went straight, spotting a blue berry on the ground.

"Ooh, an Oran Berry, yes please!" The group spread out a bit as they entered the slightly bigger opening in this maze.

"hm, interesting." Sans wasn't sure if stealing from the forest was a great idea. One must conserve the environment.

Snores could be heard from beside the berry, causing Amber to jump back, scared.

"O-Oh goodness…it's a Snorlax."

"NYEH HEH HEH! THAT THING IS HUMONGOUS! IT SLEEPS LOUDER THAN YOU BROTHER!"

"wow, thanks." The big green blob of Pokémon laid sleeping next to the blue berry.

"Should I get it?" she asked. Cameron pulled out the map and looked at the assignment.

"C'mon Amber, the Caterpie is said to be on Floor 3. We're almost there already, let's not blow this." She turned around and looked at Cameron.

"You know what? I'm going to get it."

"GO GET 'ER FOX!" exclaimed Papyrus.

Amber fell to the ground and army crawled towards the berry and grabbed it with her teeth. The Snorlax moved a little bit, but it didn't wake up. She exhaled in relief as she scurried back to the rest. Amber dropped the Oran Berry in her little pack.

"Sweet, a nice treat."

"Ew, you bit it. I'm not going to touch that _at all_ now," gagged Cameron. He pointed towards a hole in the ground past Snorlax. "Anyways, there's the staircase to the last floor, let's go."

"onwards, laddies." Amber tip-toed past the Snorlax and hopped down the stairs. Sans was right behind her, followed by Papyrus and flanked by Cameron.

The fog cleared up as they entered the final clearing, a little Caterpie sitting in the middle of the open field. The trees surrounding this area were blooming with pink and white flowers, the grass and blossoms fluttering in the wind; the last level.

"M-Momma?" the little Caterpie cried. It jumped in fear when it saw the green bandannas of the exploration team.

"Hey little guy," cooed Amber, "it's okay. Your mama sent us here to bring you home. There's nothing to be scared of."

"B-Big rock…grabbed me…took me here," stammered the Caterpie.

Amber turned back confused towards Cameron, who shrugged.

"big rock…big rock…" Sans picked up a rock from the ground, which had an unusually familiar consistency and weight. He tossed it up and caught it, knowing then what it was.

"big rock…" He blinked in shock, sweat forming under his mask.

"WHAT IS IT BROTHER?!"

"graveler."

A bellow echoed from behind him, and that would have been a good time to play some cliché suspenseful music.

"We meet once again, explorers. I see you're short your leader, hm?!" Amber stepped forward, growling.

"You took Faith out of commission for at least the next couple days. You're going to pay for that."

"FInnicky, eh?" mocked Graveler. Sans twirled his bone around.

"if i can beat you once, i can do it again in a heartbeat."

"NYEH HEH HEH! SANS IS RIGHT! I, THE GRRRREAT PAPYRUS, WILL DEFEAT YOU!"

"Let's see you try. I went easy on you rookies last time, but this time YOU WILL DIE!"

Graveler jumped up and rolled into a solid ball, charging towards Cameron. Cameron tried to blow bubbles to push Graveler back, but ended up jumping out of the way of the slam. Amber jumped on top of the rolling ball and scratched it multiple times, but it didn't seem to go anything.

"heads up again kiddos," muttered Sans. The other three jumped as Sans twirled his bone and struck the ground, causing the grassy floor to shake. The vibrations hit Graveler, knocking him out of ball form.

"Ugh!" Graveler manifested a rock and threw it at Amber, but Papyrus knocked it out of the way with his bone, proceeding to throw it towards Graveler. Graveler blocked the attack by summoning an energy shield by curling up into a fetal position. His defense had increased.

"Have a taste of your own medicine!" Graveler jumped up and down, causing the earth to shake even more violently than Sans' own Earthquake did. He stumbled around the grass, struggling to keep his balance. Papyrus had used his bone as an anchor, keeping himself steady.

Amber, meanwhile, was bouncing around uncontrollably. The attack was super effective and launched her several feet into the air. Her body was covered in scratches and bruises.

"Uwa!"

"hold up, i gotcha." Sans pointed towards Amber and she glowed blue, stopped from certain injury by Sans' psychic powers.

"Thank you." Sans started twirling her around Graveler as she continuously spewed Embers at the rock monster. It didn't do much, but it was good enough of a distraction to get Cameron to come to his senses.

"My turn, I suppose," he muttered. He waddled up to the ball and unleashed a geyser of water, pushing Graveler back towards the trees. His back slammed into a trunk, crushing some of the rocks off of his body. He got up slowly, pressing his back in pain with his right appendage.

"Ugh…you got…lucky…again."

"I don't think that's luck mister," chirped Amber, winking. "I think that we're just better than you."

Sans' eye glowed as he heard the snap of a stick behind him. He teleported up to the sneaking Watchdog and upper-cut it with his bone, causing it to fly up into the air. The Watchdog fell to the ground, holding it's mouth.

"H-Hey…you chipped my tooth!"

"maybe pick on somebody your own size next time," laughed Sans, whacking Watchdog in the head. Watchdog's eyes turned into spirals.

"NICE ONE SANS!" Papyrus suddenly started hopping in pain.

"AAAAAA! SOMETHING BIT ME! UWA!" The brown and black dog from earlier clamped it's teeth onto Papyrus' arm, causing him to drop his bone.

"I gotcha Papyrus." Cameron reeled back and spat water at the brown and black dog, throwing it towards Sans, who held his bone like a baseball bat.

"and here comes the pitch…" He swung through hitting the dog solidly in the torso, launching it into the air.

"No, Herdier!" shouted Graveler, who tried to get away from the group. Amber, however, jumped in front of him.

"and…it's going…gone! a home run."

"Nowhere to go Graveler," she snarled, "you're coming with us."

"I have my own agenda Fennekin," laughed Graveler, "see you."

"GUWAH!" she shouted as a Diglett whacked her from underneath, disappearing as fast as it came. She fell to the ground, her eyes spirals, shocking the rest.

"OH MY! WHAT A TRAVESTY!"

"Urk, I'll finish this off." Cameron slid over towards the hole the Diglett left in the ground, inundating the tunnel with water. It was presumed the Diglett was flushed out, never to be seen again. Just like Graveler.

The three ran over towards Amber, her green bandanna floating in the wind, her ears occasionally twitching.

"she'll be fine, yeah?"

Cameron inspected Amber's wounds.

"Yeah, it's not nearly as bad as Faith's. She'll make a recovery." Cameron looked towards Sans.

"We have to return Caterpie to his mother. Come on, I'll carry Amber, you two help the Caterpie."

Sans and Papyrus escorted the baby Caterpie back up through the dungeon floors while Cameron labored as he ascended with an unconscious Amber strapped to his back.

After about twenty minutes of climbing and walking around, they finally returned to the Butterfree Village, the sky now dark. They must have been in the dungeon for quite some time.

Sans heard commotion behind him, and saw that Amber had feebly regained consciousness.

"Put…me…down…you…rotten Piplup." Cameron dropped her onto the ground with a splat.

"Geez, I was only helping you…no need to be so sassy."

"I just got KO'd," she snapped, "do you really think I'm in a good mood right now?" She limped towards Sans.

"We won, right?"

Sans shrugged.

"i mean, graveler got away, but we got this little guy back safe." He tapped the Caterpie's head with his bone, making it laugh.

"Good…come on, we have a request to finish."

The four plus the missing Caterpie re-entered Butterfree Village to a loud meeting in the center of town. A Butterfree with a yellow bandanna was talking to the rest, most of the Butterfree outraged or confused.

"Do not worry, we have everything under control, it will be okay." The yellow bandanna Butterfree turned towards Amber.

"Oh, I see you're back with my boy."

"Dada!" The Caterpie inched towards the Butterfree.

"Thank you guys so much. We may need you again."

Amber and Sans looked at each other.

"why?"

The yellow bandanna Butterfree's antennas dropped.

"You talked to my wife earlier, right?"

"If you mean that pink Butterfree, then yes, we did," replied Cameron.

"She's gone missing."

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	5. Duty Calls

"Um sir…we completed the rescue request. Here's your portion of the Poké." Faith pushed the mission reward across Noctowl's desk, who fidgeted with his fingers, pleased with the progress.

"Nicely done, you seem to be on a roll right now Faith."

Faith turned back to Amber and Sans, the former looking at her nervously and the latter fidgeting with a bone.

"Um…sir…that's not all." Noctowl flipped the coin and looked up from his desk.

"Hm? What is it?"

"Well…" began Faith. Amber snuck on past her and stepped on another seat.

"You see Noctowl, the client who we met with first…wasn't the same we met with after the mission was completed."

"What do you mean?" Noctowl inquired.

"Within the time that we left for the Lost Forest and returned back to the village, the Butterfree we talked to was missing," explained Cameron. "The person we returned the baby Caterpie to was her husband."

Noctowl leaned back in his chair, concerned.

"Well then…I suppose that's yet another issue we have to deal with now."

"What do you mean _other issue?_ " Faith asked. Noctowl shook his head and smiled.

"Oh don't worry, it doesn't concern you. Besides, you have your own recruitment competition to worry about. You still have a big lead to catch up on. I hope those two are offering at least some help."

Amber smiled and winked.

"Yeah, they're a real help. We wouldn't have completed today's mission without them."

"aw man. you don't need to."

"NYEH HEH HEH! THE GRREEAT PAPYRUS WAS HAPPY TO HELP!"

Noctowl laughed loudly.

"Nicely done! You guys can-" The phone rang.

"Hold up, let me take this call." Noctowl picked up the landline and held it up to his ear.

"This is Noctowl, Exploration Union Master."

Silence.

"Hm? Go on…"

Continued silence. Faith and Amber darted their eyes around.

"Oh…oh my…thank you for letting me know."

Noctowl hung up the phone before turning back to Team Green and sighing.

"Team Hurricane hasn't responded to any contact and none of our Staravia can find their whereabouts."

"What? Are you serious?!" shouted Cameron. "This is insane…"

Noctowl looked at his watch and shook his head again.

"Ugh, it's past lights out, and you're the only ones awake. You'll have to do. Follow me upstairs."

Noctowl whipped on his bifocals and trudged out of the room, followed by the little sprinting Pokémon. He began to flap his wings as he took off up the stairwell.

"wait…he can fly?" Amber facepalmed herself.

"He's a bird Sans. Of course he can."

"But I can't…" muttered Cameron.

"You're not a bird Cameron."

"But I am a bird-."

"You're a penguin Cameron. Penguins don't fly."

"I call hacks on all other birds and nature."

Faith laughed.

"Now that's better."

Cameron blushed and shut up.

"H-hey…that was just a joke…that didn't mean anything."

Sans led the charge up the stairs, where they found Noctowl standing outside the entrance.

"hm? what is it?" Sans brought his bone out in a ready stance, followed by the others.

"If what you said is true, you have to go find that Butterfree _now_."

"B-but sir," began Cameron, "we've already done one mission and training today. You're asking us to go on another mission?"

Noctowl stood vigilant.

"You came here to become a member of Exploration Union, yes?"

"Of course sir," replied Faith.

"Then you must go. Sometimes duty calls beyond what is expected of you." He turned to Faith.

"Find out as much as you can about Butterfree. Report back by seven."

Faith saluted.

"Yes, sir."

Noctowl spread his wings and dove back into the secret entrance, the hill shutting behind them.

Sans turned to Amber.

"huh…looks like we've got another thing on our hands."

Amber handed her pack to Faith, who slung it over her uninjured arm.

"I suppose so Sans, but we have orders now to find the missing Butterfree." Amber pouted.

"Even though it's late and I need my beauty sleep."

"Amber, you snore at night," snorted Cameron. She punched him in the beak, causing him to reel back.

"Don't you dare make fun of my sleeping, or I'll tell Sans and Papyrus about-"

"NONONO, please don't tell them," he shouted, holding his beak.

"I win."

"Come on guys," interrupted Faith, "the longer we wait the more time the kidnappers have to take the Butterfree."

"NYEH? ARE YOU SURE THAT THEY WERE KIDNAPPED?"

Faith scratched her head and smiled.

"No, not really. But it's my gut feeling you know."

Papyrus shrugged.

"OK!"

By the time they had marched back to Butterfree Village, the meeting was almost over, most of the Butterfree packing up. The Butterfree with the yellow bandanna noticed them and fluttered on over.

"Oh, you're back," he exclaimed. "Thanks for saving my boy, by the way."

Faith nodded politely.

"It was no problem. Anyhow, we're back to find your wife."

The Butterfree thought for a bit.

"Hm…"

"When did you notice she was gone?" asked Amber, curious.

"I…I don't remember? It was about an hour after you guys left, or that's what she told me at least. She said she was going to go take a nap, and I left for work. By the time I came back…she was nowhere to be seen. Although, you might want to try the area around the Grassy Plains; it's where she typically goes for alone time." He blinked.

"I'm worried."

Sans stepped forward.

"don't worry, we'll find her asap."

"NYEH HEH HEH! THAT IS RIGHT SANS!"

"Well team, we are off!" shouted Faith. "Thanks again!"

"No, thank you," the Butterfree replied. "I'm in your debt."

"No need for that sir," Amber piped, "it's just what we do."

Faith led Green Team out of the Butterfree Village in the opposite direction they took towards the Lost Forest. The Grassy Plains was home to mainly Grass, Normal, and Flying Type Pokémon. None of the other three were familiar with the area, so they made sure to be very quiet.

Suddenly, Amber spoke up.

"Guys, I see something!"

Sans stumbled over and looked down in the tall grass. He picked up the object Amber pointed out.

"a pink…bow."

"What do you think?" asked Amber, "tracks lead that way." She pointed towards the east, as opposed to north, where they were headed.

"Hm…it's a lead. Let's do it," said Faith. Cameron put his flipper up and walked in between the rest of the group.

"This may seem pretty cliché, but this may be a trap. Whoever took this Butterfree in broad daylight without _anyone_ seeing them must be intelligent, and would indeed leave a red herring to throw any rescue teams off."

"i dunno cam, you may be right, but this is the closest we have. besides, this grass looks completely trampled. struggle."

Cameron flipperpalmed and sighed.

"You know what? How about this. Faith, Papyrus, and I will keep going north, you and Amber go east."

"Hey Cameron, I'm the leader here-"

"Do you want to _die_?"

"No, of course not-"

"Then take my word. A leader always takes their followers' opinions into consideration."

"Agh…I guess you're right."

"Heh, for once."

"Shut up Cameron."

Faith stood in front of the four.

"Okay, as Cameron said, Amber and Sans, you two go east. Papyrus, Cameron, and I will go north. Meet back here if you run into any trouble or find something."

"of course, hehe."

Sans split from the main group with Amber and followed the trampled grass that led from the pink bow. It was oddly convenient, but still…

"Hey Sans," Amber suddenly said, "how are you feeling."

"good i suppose…why?"

She turned away from his glance, his skull mask bouncing as Sans stepped through the plains.

"You know…you've only been here a day, and yet…you've adjusted to this life faster than any of us could have. _Why? How?_ "

He shrugged.

"dunno, i just go with the flow i suppose. it's just my nature."

The crickets chirped as they continued through the grass, the starry sky shining above. Sans was in awe of it, taking it in almost as if he had never seen it before.

"Don't you miss your home Sans? I mean…the mesa, you know. It's hard being a member of the Exploration Union."

Sans began to sweat a bit. He had to fabricate some sort of lie now.

"eh…you know. it's something i took into consideration when i got the offer, but in the end i think it's worth it."

He shook the skull, instinctively.

"you know…"

She nodded, solemnly. How did Sans know to do that…even he didn't know.

"But your brother, Papyrus…he's very lively, but can get himself into trouble. Do you feel it's your right to protect him?"

"definitely. it's what brothers do, you know."

"Hehe, you really do care about him, don't you?"

"of course, he's been with me all my…life." He stumbled on the last word. He'd been distracted by the Exploration Union, the training, the missions, but he had still completely forgotten about the real reason he joined; to find the truth. The only thing he remembered was his brother and their relationship. Whether or not he was always a Cubone, what he did before his last memory, and why he was in the cave was unbeknownst to him.

They continued to follow the trampled tracks, the damage slowly decreasing as they continued to walk along.

Amber looked up at the stars and her bandanna floated in the wind.

"Sans, did you ever…care for someone else?"

He was taken a bit by surprise; a bit of a random question coming from someone he had met just yesterday. Yet, after all he'd been through, being thrown into action before he could even take a single breath of air…did that really matter?

"hm…i…don't know..."

Amber was silent.

"I see…"

Sans slid his bone back into his sheath and tried to reach deep into his memories. Most of them felt like static noise, with no clear picture of what happened, but just in the last day a few had begun to take shape. Very minimal, just like that dream he had after getting his butt kicked by Charizard.

" _who was that paps and i were talking to?"_ he wondered. He felt that whoever that was had great significance, but couldn't recall any of it. He was thinking about asking Papyrus, but he decided that it probably would just cause more confusion and blow his cover.

"Sans?"

"…"

"Sans?! Are you there?!" Amber was shaking him.

"wha, uwa?"

"Come on, don't scare me like that."

He blinked a couple times and adjusted his skull mask.

"what is it?"

"Listen."

They both laid in the grass as they heard moans and groans of pain not too far away, behind a lone tree that stood one hundred feet tall in the middle of the Plains.

"Hm, the Tree of Fates. Interesting."

Sans looked at her, confused.

"the tree of fates?"

Her eyes darted towards him.

"Yeah, the Tree of Fates. Legend says that if people go to the tree on a full moon and tell it a wish, their dream will come true. But they must be ready. The Tree can not grant a wish to those with darkness in their hearts or unfinished business in society."

"interesting."

They both looked up. The moon was full, indeed.

"huh, convenient i suppose."

She blushed.

"Yeah…I guess so. But whatever, come on. We have to see what's going on at the tree."

The two slowly army crawled their way until they were right next to the Tree of Fates, the sounds of pain just on the other side of the trunk. Sans had his blue eye in the back, ready. He drew his bone, ready to strike if necessary.

He turned to Amber, looking at her for any signs.

"Quiet…come on." They slowly inched their way around the trunk until they were right around the corner.

"You first Sans."

"what? ladies first."

"Well the lady says you go first."

"god dammit."

Sans carefully crawled over Amber as the groans reached a high pitch. He closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths. His gut was warning him not to go around, not to turn, not to look. He had no reason to not turn, except for that of course.

"Well…what are you waiting for?"

His eyes went dark, causing Amber to squeal in fright.

"Sans, your eyes-"

He brought his hands out and calmed her down.

"shh, it's okay. it just helps me focus." His eyes returned back to normal as he waited in suspense. The groans were turning into screams, no turning back now.

"okay."

He whirled around, his blue eye glowing, his bone out in a ready position as he looked behind the trunk. There was something there of course, but not anything that he expected. Nothing that _anyone_ expected. The screams continued, tears of shock puddling in his eyes. The shadow of an humanoid figure in all black laid on the tree trunk, staring at him, their mouth out wide.

"oh my god."

He immediately felt sick to his stomach. He ran back behind the tree, threw his mask off, dropped his bone, and vomited on the ground behind him. He fell to his fours and continued to cough, absolutely scared shitless.

Amber ran up to comfort him.

"Sans, Sans! What did you see?!"

He coughed multiple times and took deep breaths, adrenaline running through his body. His head began to throb, his heart raced, his muscles ached.

The memory returned once again, but this time it was when he was awake:

* * *

 _It continued from where it had ended._

" _Well you two, you have to at least commend me on this discovery."_

 _Sans' vision was still dark, but he knew he was in the same place._

 _Similar moans and groans came from directly in front of him. No wonder Sans' gut didn't like this._

" _)-)#*$^%," Papyrus began, his voice garbled, "THIS REALLY…REALLY MAKES ME UNEASY. THE GRRREAT PAPYRUS DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS-"_

" _Sans?" interrupted the unknown voice. Sans felt sick to his stomach in the memory, the feeling just as vivid._

" _it just…doesn't seem right…"_

" _I AGREE WITH SANS HERE."_

" _Sometimes, you just have to be 40937093 (*^$2-"_

* * *

Rubber-banding back into reality, he threw himself back into the tree, gasping for air.

"oh my…oh my god…oh my god…"

Amber hugged him with two of her paws.

"You're back! Holy crap. You passed out and you weren't breathing, and you were…" She started crying.

"i…died?"

"N-No, your heart still continued, but you were out for about thirty seconds."

"d-don't look back there."

"Why?"

The image of what was around the trunk returned to Sans' mind.

"it's…hard to take in. but we have to deal with it in some way."

He blinked several times, put his mask back on, and picked his bone up from the vomit. He had to go look at it again, but at least he had seen it before.

He turned to Amber.

"please…please don't be scared. don't run."

"You dare question my bravery?"

"good."

He sheathed his bone after wiping it down and turned back around the trunk. The groans and moans had stopped, but picked up as soon as he turned around. Amber had followed, but she instantly gagged and turned around.

Sans trotted up to her and kneeled down.

"it's okay, it's not harmful. just let it out."

Amber started crying as well.

"Who…who did this? What is that?" She gagged again and laid on the ground, shaking.

"Holy shit…holy shit…"

Sans turned back around to the creature. At least they had found the missing Butterfree…or at least…most of her.

The moans and groans came not from one source, but multiple. A giant blob of _something_ laid upon the ground in front of Sans, a potluck of many. He could make out the outlines of some, but they had…melted into each other. The forms tried to separate, but the more they did they more they fused together. Their faces had begun to deform, their limbs and torsos already indistinguishable from the others. The pink Butterfree, as well as several bee-like Pokémon and a bird had been fused together, their cries of pain coming as one. It was horrific; nothing should be like this. It was completely unnatural, inhumane, terrible.

" _H-Heaaalp, meeee-"_

" _Iiii'm dyhying-where aaam i?"_

" _Meeelting…cann't staahp-"_

He knelt on the ground, solemn, as Amber turned and joined him. Her eyes had adjusted to the sight.

"What..is it?" she asked.

Sans shook his head.

"that's not an it. it's an _its_."

She gasped.

"The Butterfree…and those Beedrill…a Pidgey…what? I can make up multiple Pokémon but they aren't separated…they've fused together."

" _P-Pleaaase…saaave uss."_

"Don't worry, I-I'll help…"

Sans waited for a moment as she trotted near them, about to reach her paw out to pull them out, when a memory sparked into her head. He quickly jumped up and pushed her out of the way. They both sprawled to the ground.

"H-HEY! What was that for Sans? I was just trying to help!" she shouted.

Sans shook his head and adjusted his skull mask.

"no. don't touch." He turned and looked.

"i'm pretty sure if touch it, you will melt into it as well."

She blinked.

"Y-You're sure about it? So you're saying the Butterfree was wandering over, and saw this, and touched it and became absorbed into it?"

Sans picked up the grass nearby and let it go, the wind taking it away.

"no. it was definitely not voluntary." He turned and looked at Amber, concerned.

"you're sure this has _never_ happened, _ever_?!"

She nodded.

"No accounts of anything this horrific." He turned back to the blob. A term popped into his thoughts. What was this called…

"this is…an amalgamate," he continued. "i think…i think i remember seeing one of these before."

"When?"

"i don't know…" Sans adjusted his green bandanna and blinked a couple times. This thing can't be something that happens around here, so that option is out. Maybe this is significant to his own goal.

He turned to Amber again and pointed at her with the bone.

"nobody knows about this. just between you and me, got it?"

"Not even Papyrus?"

"not even papyrus."

Her paws shifted around, nervous.

"O-Ok…"

He looked back at the Amalgamate.

"What are we going to do with it?"

Sans couldn't recall how he may have dealt with them in the past.

"we're just going to have to leave them here. hope that nobody else becomes absorbed."

"But they're in so much pain! Is it really right?"

"i'm sorry…but we don't have a choice." He brought his arm around her shoulders and turned her around. He pointed at the badge.

"we should…go back."

Amber glanced down at it.

"What about the others? How will we cover this?"

"just tell them we didn't find anything and got lost, so we just warped back to home base."

Amber sighed.

"I don't like this Sans."

"me neither."

The two touched their EU badges and the beams of light took them away, the screams of the Amalgamate echoing in the wind as the stars continued to shine, the shadow of the Tree of Fates enveloping the monster in it's grasp.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **Just know that uploads may slow down a bit, as I have school to work on as well. Sorry for the inconvenience!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know. Feel free to DM me or leave a review :P**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	6. Prophetic Wisdom

"Now recruits, today you are working on your mental speed and your decision-making!"

Sceptile walked around the practice field as recruits were placed, blindfolded, in the middle of a "simulation," which was just plants and cardboard cutouts in the gym.

Sans sat on the sideline next to his team as Sceptile led a Geodude onto the field, their vision blocked by their bandanna.

Team Hurricane had still not returned from their scouting mission, to the chagrin of literally everyone there. Noctowl had decided to opt out of sending another scout team due to the losses the Union had already experienced, but he also gave the recruits a second training assignment in as many days, which was apparently rare according to Faith. At least it was mental and didn't involve as much physical beating, Sans thought.

He turned to Faith who happened to be looking at him at the same time. She quickly turned away, averting her gaze to something else. She had been relatively quiet towards Sans since last night, which was odd considering she was normally very talkative towards Sans. That Amalgamate incident must have had some traumatic effects. He wasn't completely surprised; that thing was indeed horrific and disturbing.

When the others got back, they told them that they didn't find a single thing and got lost, so they warped themselves back to the Union. After a solid fifteen-minute scolding from Faith, they were finally allowed to go to bed…for only about three hours until roll call. Sans relied on sleep, whether it be in a bed or in random places, to keep him going throughout the day. While he certainly had more endurance than he remembered, three hours of sleep was nowhere close to enough for Sans.

"SANS, WAKE UP! YOU'RE GOING TO MISS YOUR TURN!"

Sans jolted up and hit the back of his head on the wall. He rubbed the spot under the skull mask.

"ugh, ow. jeez papyrus, you don't need to shout."

"I WILL NOT LET MY BROTHER SLEEP THROUGH THIS! I, THE GRRRRREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STAY VIGILANT!"

"Go!" Sceptile yanked the bandanna away from Geodude's eyes, blinding the rock Pokémon.

"Analyze the situation. What is the next move?" Sceptile asked.

Sans stared at the setup and tried to think about it himself.

 _Check your six. Five hostiles, two hostages total. Deal with any imminent threats to you before dealing with captors; puts you and the hostage at risk. Take out the hostile directly behind. Stun the captor, take out the two flanks, secure the hostages, take down the captor. Defeat the watchman. Maximize efficiency. Think on the fly…_

"SANS, YOU'RE UP!" exclaimed Papyrus. Sans broke his focus.

"wait, what? already?"

Sceptile walked over and tied Sans' bandanna around his eyes, blinding him. This would be for points.

"Woo! Sans! You can do it!" shouted Faith. Of course.

He felt himself step on the grass.

"Ready?"

"no-"

"Go!"

The bandanna was ripped off Sans' eyes.

He scanned his surroundings. A giant "cliff" stood in front of him. He didn't know what was behind.

 _Check your six._

Sans glanced behind him and saw a red cardboard cutout. He whacked it down instantly.

"Good. Next step."

 _Analyze counts._

One hostage being held at the edge of the cliff, one captor, at least twelve hostiles. Not good odds.

 _Deal with the imminent threats._

Sans smashed his bone into the ground, knocking over about ¾ of the cutouts around him.

 _Secure the hostage._

Dammit, he didn't have the range. Sans used telekinesis to bring down the green cardboard cutout to the ground.

 _Complete the exit._

He whacked a couple red cutouts before keeling over, out of breath.

"Well done Cubone, well done." Sceptile clapped slowly.

"Definitely could have been better, but certainly could have been much worse."

" _ **EVENING ROLE CALL, ALL UNION MEMBERS PLEASE REPORT TO THE HUB IMMEDIATELY."**_

The other recruits started to pack up and converse with one another, leaving Sans and Sceptile on the field.

"Practice will continue after role call…" said Sceptile. He jumped up the stairs ahead of all of the recruits, nearly taking off the head of a Pidgey in the process.

"Oy, watch where you're going!"

Sceptile didn't respond.

Sans joined his group as they waited to climb up the stairs.

"Not bad Sans," said Cameron, "I would have gone after the hostage first, but that's just me."

"you do you," laughed Sans, "i'll do me, deal?"

"Sure, whatever you say."

They slowly trudged up the stairs and walked to the Hub, where the teams were waiting for role call. There were fewer than last time.

"Hm…" began Cameron.

"Shh, it's starting!" shouted Faith.

Noctowl slowly walked up to the podium and looked down at all of the members.

"All of you, we are not here for role call. I called you all here for something else."

"Knew it," squeaked a random Pokémon in the front. Noctowl stared it down and continued.

"It is unfortunate for me to report to you that…Team Hurricane _still_ hasn't returned."

Unanimous moans and groans ensue.

"Recent developments have led me to believe that something may be at hand here. Perhaps it is the Heroes' Prophecy back at work again."

"Come on Noctowl," complained Charizard, "the last time you said that we were forced to go on a two-week search without any returns to home. Most of us almost starved to death."

"Anyhow, the Prophecy!" exclaimed Noctowl, completely ignoring Charizard.

"We've already heard it!" shouted Sceptile.

"The recruits haven't," Noctowl laughed, knowing he won.

Charizard and Sceptile both facepalmed.

"Whatever, let's hear it again."

Sans turned to Faith.

"what's the prophecy?"

"I dunno," she replied, "I haven't heard it yet."

"Ahem…" Noctowl coughed.

"Now, for the Prophecy of Heroes."

 _Two Pokémon not from our world  
Who share a bond no others hold  
Shall tip the balance we hold so dear  
And plunge the world into chaos and fear_

 _Calamity attacks without a heart  
It strikes our world just like a dart  
To save this place from eternal gloom  
Heroes must be sent to their ultimate doom_

 _To cure the world of this terrible fate  
The keys, the flute, the scale they must take  
From the sky-high clouds to the caves underground  
The heroes will face danger all around_

 _When the three are brought to the Prophet of Truth  
Peace will spread and return to it's youth  
But if nothing is done and nothing is quelled  
This haven will transform to a permanent hell. _

Sans stood still, his eyes unmoving.

 _Two Pokémon not from this world who share a bond no others hold?_

Could that be him and Papyrus? If so, then that would mean…

Sans glanced up and caught the gaze of Noctowl. Sans felt that Noctowl was directing this towards him, almost as if he was silently accusing Sans of being the said cause of calamity.

"Yeah yeah, I get it Noctowl," began Charizard, "and even if this was true the items it speaks of are only rumored to exist."

"The 'keys' are likely the fabled Elemental Keys guarded by Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos," explained Sceptile.

"The 'flute' is the Flute of Truth, which is rumored to be in possession by the four island deities, and the 'scale' would be the Prismatic Scale under the protection of Kyurem, Rayquaza, AND Giratina. Oh, and did I mention these are just _legends and rumors_?"

"Yes Sceptile, but this prophecy was given by the Prophet of Truth himself and handed down through generations on generations of Exploration Union Masters."

"The Prophet of Truth?" snorted Charizard, "Are you talking about that old Alakazam with the weird bracelet who just meditates all day by the Coastal Overhang?"

Charizard and Sceptile began to argue with Noctowl over the significance of a prophecy given by who Charizard said is, quote on quote, "An old fart."

Sans perked up. The Coastal Overhang? According to the map in the Hub, that wasn't that far from here. Maybe he could get some answers…

"Hehe, pretty funny," laughed Faith, punching Sans in the shoulder. "It's a pretty cliché prophecy, but everyone believes it to some extent. It's partially the reason a lot of teams join the Union; to have a chance at glory."

"haha, yea…"

His eyes darted around the room as he searched for his brother. Sans ran up and grabbed Papyrus' scarf.

"NYEH?!"

"paps, come with me."

"SANS?! WHERE ARE WE GOING?!"

"to get some answers."

"FOR?!"

Sans dragged his brother up the stairs amidst the chaotic argument that had exploded at the front of the meeting area.

"our past."

"NYEH?! …OH. THAT'S RIGHT."

Sans unsheathed his bone and Papyrus grabbed his as the entrance hill opened up. Sans walked over to the tree trunk where the Riolu had talked to them once before.

"Oh hey, it's you again," the guard Riolu began, "what is it you want?"

"just looking for the coastal overhang." The Riolu pointed past the secret entrance.

"You'll find the overhang just past the entrance. Why are you going anyway? To admire the view?"

Sans shrugged and winked.

"sure, let's go with that."

Sans marched over the grassy hills towards the cliffside, just above the Hub. He saw a figure hovering in mid-air, facing the sun as it set over the horizon, filling the sky with reds, oranges, and purples. The wind blew softly, the breeze barely whisking his hoodie jacket around his body. It was quite a good day to watch the sunset.

Sans sheathed his bone and began to walk towards the figure.

"SANS?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"come on paps, nothing to be afraid of. i think."

Papyrus cautiously followed Sans' footsteps as they neared the rocky edge overlooking the coast of the Dark Sea. The figure, revealed to be yellow in shape holding two spoons, was unmoving, only responding to slight changes in the breeze. On it's left arm was a bracelet, a circular white, yellow, and red ball embedded in it's beads. Their head was unusually large in proportion to their body.

"I was expecting you," the figure suddenly spoke. Sans' eyes temporarily went dark.

"uh…how did you know?"

"I can sense it. Your feelings, your intentions…everything." The figure rotated to face Sans and Papyrus. Their eyes locked onto each other.

"I am Alakazam. I have been alive since this place came to be."

Alakazam blinked.

"You want answers…you're afraid of what lies ahead, you don't know what lies behind, and you can't understand the present."

"SANS, I DON'T GET IT-"

"And you…Marowak…I am receiving similar emotions from you. However, you're dealing with it in a different way…I can see why you two are close."

"ok, so you know a bit about us. i'm sure you know our problems, right?"

Alakazam turned away.

"I've been watching you since you got here, but…I can only read your emotions. Your past…your entire life…it's all clouded. Both of you."

Alakazam suddenly twisted towards Sans.

"This is not your world, is it?"

Sans was silent.

"i…i don't know?"

"You don't remember anything, do you?"

"…no."

Alakazam closed his eyes.

"The Prophecy…I can sense it…your fates…they will be involved. I do not know how, but you will play a big role in the conflict that is soon to come."

"NYEH? WHAT CONFLICT?"

"That…I cannot tell you. It would disrupt the already fragile balance of energy, not to mention plunge the world into an everlasting time loop that would break the fabric of space-time."

Sans tilted his head, curious. This seemed like something he'd be interested in.

"go on?"

"…That is all I can see. You must go now."

Sans began to shake, annoyed. He came up here just to get a bunch of ambiguous bullshit. Although, prophecies tend to result in a surplus of ambiguous bullshit, so he didn't really know why he expected anything else.

"there has to be more than that! tell us more!"

Alakazam was unresponsive. Sans' blue eye glowed in the back of his left pupil and he stared right at the meditating Alakazam.

"tell me more!"

"Now is not the time. Leave."

"why you little-"

"Sans? Papyrus?"

Sans spun around, surprised. He heard Amber's voice from the other side of the hill. He glanced at Papyrus, who looked at him too.

"Are you guys there?!" she shouted.

Sans turned back to Alakazam, but he was gone, vanished into the night.

Amber ran up over the hill towards Sans.

"Jeez, you just left without telling us! You can't do that!"

Sans chuckled.

"well, sometimes i just need to go places, you know."

She looked behind him at the sunset.

"Why'd you come up here?"

Sans sweat beneath his skull mask.

"eh, you know…admire the view, i suppose."

"During role call?"

"yea…"

Amber didn't seem to buy it, but it was the best Sans could do.

"Okay…if you say so I suppose."

She wagged her tail.

"C'mon, it's going to rain soon anyways. Let's go!"

Sans turned to Papyrus, who shrugged as well, then posed.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I, THE GRRRREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GO INSIDE?!"

He quickly sprinted past Amber and Sans.

"ok, whatever."

He stuck his hands into his hoodie pockets and walked down with Amber back into the base, wondering what Alakazam's ambiguous advice could possibly mean.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	7. Coastal Cove

**Sorry for the long time in between posts! I've been pretty busy and stuff is starting to ramp up, so I'll be posting less often for now. Sorry! :(**

 **I hope you guys like the new title page! As you saw in the message at the beginning, only the middle section was drawn by me, I did not create the other two sections of the image.**

 **Anyways, on to the story!**

* * *

"So, what assignment do you have for us today?"

Noctowl stepped down from the podium, the morning role-call just finished. He held his stack of papers under his wing and nodded to a couple other team leaders before turning back to Faith.

"I would normally say take assignments off the bulletin board, but today I actually have something to you guys to do."

Noctowl took a folder out of the stack and handed it to Faith, who began jumping in glee.

"OOoooh, so exciting!"

"I wouldn't call it exciting Faith," muttered Noctowl, "look at the assignment itself."

The group gathered around as Faith opened the file. Inside was the picture of a Sylveon, with a line drawn to a single point; an image of a forested cliffside.

"Fountain Bluff?" asked Amber, curious.

"It's nearby where I used to live," explained Cameron, "but why are we going there?"

"This Sylveon and her escorts went missing yesterday around this area. Since there's a Mystery Dungeon around the parts, I suspect they got lost in the bluff."

"That still doesn't explain it," insisted Cameron. "Fountain Bluff is pretty far away from here. I know there's another branch of the Exploration Union there, so why are we being assigned to this?"

Sans turned to Cameron.

"If there's another branch nearby where you live, why did you come here?"

Cameron shrugged.

"'Cause my friends came here. You can't really join the Union solo…well, you can. It's just much more difficult that way."

"Back to the point," shouted Faith. "Like he said, why are we assigned to this?"

"Because this Sylveon is an evaluator sent out by the Union Committee to check on our branch's progress," replied Noctowl.

Amber blinked.

"We should really get moving then." She turned to Cameron.

"Lead the way Piplup."

"Shut up."

The five were about to climb the spiral staircase when Noctowl suddenly put his wing on Sans' shoulder. The other four continued on while Sans turned around.

"yeah, what's up?"

Noctowl looked at him straight in the eye.

"You are not to tell the others about this."

Sans shrugged.

"you sure? i'm not the best at keeping promises ya know."

"There's no other option."

Noctowl glanced around at the others gathered around the Hub and led Sans to a corner.

" _Your_ primary objective is to search for clues to the whereabouts of Team Cloud. We sent them a few days ago on a completely unrelated mission nearby Fountain Bluff and they never returned."

Sans was taken aback by this.

"you mean an expert team got lost?"

"Yes. Exactly."

"and you want _me_ , a recruit with less than a week of experience, to try and find them?"

"Yes."

"what kind of messed up logic is that?"

Noctowl sighed.

"Sans, the situation is getting out of hand. I'm getting calls from all over reporting disappearances and we don't have the capacity to respond."

Sans tilted his head, intrigued.

"what do you mean more disappearances?"

Noctowl's face rapidly shifted to that of shock and fear, but was quickly replaced by his normal calm demeanor.

"Oh, nothing. It's nothing for you to be worried about. We'll get them handled. You just need to focus on your assignment."

Amber stomped down the spiral staircase and stared down Sans from the ceiling.

"Hey Slow Guy, you coming or not?!"

His eyes darted towards Noctowl.

"i'll see what i can do sir."

Noctowl nodded and left the Hub, leaving Sans and Amber looking at each other.

"hold up, wait for me."

Amber rolled her eyes as Sans slowly climbed the staircase.

"Ugh, we don't have all day Sans!"

The pair exited the hill and Cameron pulled out the Wonder Map from Faith's pack.

"So we're here." Cameron pointed at the little hill with the EU flag flying above it.

"And Fountain Bluff is…" Cameron moved his flipper all the way to the right side of the map. "Waaaaaaaaay over here."

Faith jumped back.

"Are you serious?! That's at least a _day_ 's travel away! And that's assuming we don't sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, do other missions, etcetera."

"NYEH HEH HEH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS AN IDEA! WHY DON'T WE RESCUE OTHER PEOPLE ON OUR WAY THERE, AND REST IN BETWEEN!"

Faith brought her left hand up to her chin and scratched it.

"That's…not a bad idea," she replied.

"I'm assuming the Wonder Map will expand in size once we reach Fountain Bluff?"

"Correct," said Cameron. "Our Wonder Map only updates based off where we been or what we know exists. Our Wonder Map only expands based off us; others' maps may be bigger or smaller in range."

"I suggest this!" shouted Amber, pointing at a red blob in between Fountain Bluff and the union.

Cameron rolled his eyes.

"Really? You want to go to Lava Creek?"

"Yeah," replied Amber, "I kinda miss home. Might as well check it out again."

"where the heck do you get all these mystery dungeons?" interrupted Sans.

All three of Team Green's original members turned towards him, causing Sans to back up.

"Contrary to what you may believe Sans," began Amber, "we came here from all over. We've been to quite a few places _before_ becoming a formal exploration team, you know." She pointed to Cameron.

"This guy is only here because we convinced him to join us. He's technically supposed to report to the Fountain Bluff branch, not the Lost Forest branch."

Faith stepped forward.

"We got into a lot of trouble as kids, exploring Mystery Dungeons and such, but that was always our dream; to become a formal exploration team," she said.

Cameron rolled his eyes.

"Well, that was their dream. They just wanted a third member and I was forced to join."

Amber turned towards Cameron and smirked.

"From what I remember Cameron, you were the one who was the most enthusiastic about becoming an explorer, so you 'forced' yourself to join us."

He turned and stared down Amber.

"Why you little-"

"Break it up you two, now is not the time." Faith stepped in between and held both of them back by their foreheads.

"hehe…yeah."

She looked up.

"Anyways, we have to prep up. I'll go find some missions to carry out at Lava Creek. Cameron and Papyrus, you two go collect supplies. Amber and Sans, you two…uh…go buy some apples at Kecleon's at Coastal Cove." She dumped a bunch of Poké coins on them from her bag.

"Meet us at Lele café, you hear?"

Sans turned to Amber as the rest left to go do their jobs.

"coastal cove? you mean there's a town nearby here?"

Amber looked at him like he was dumb.

"Yeah, where do you think we get all our mail and supplies from?"

"why didn't i hear about this the past few days?"

She tapped him on the back and turned him around down the trail, the opposite direction of the way towards the Lost Forest and Butterfree Village.

"Sorry, that's my bad. We visit there a lot normally, but with you and Papyrus around we haven't had much time to go."

"well that would have been useful information, huh?"

"Yeah…"

They slowly trudged down the trail as Sans ran some of those names in his head.

"wait…lele…that doesn't mean the tapu lele you were talking about earlier, right?"

She shook her head.

"Oh no, it does."

"but isn't tapu lele one of those island guardians?"

"According to rumors, yes. She doesn't really talk about it though; always dismisses it as a funny rumor she and her buds started to make people all riled up about exploring. Improves business, she says."

"and who are these…friends?"

"Dunno. Heads up, we're here."

"oh, sorry."

Amber and Sans walked under a red and gold archway that had "Welcome to Coastal Cove" engraved in the thin metal sheet.

"well ain't this cozy."

"Yup, it is."

Sans found himself standing on a cobblestone crossing in the middle of a group of small, quaint buildings. To his front and right was what he thought was a Kangaskhan (he'd been working on his Pokémon) sitting in a building the shape of their head. To his front and left was a pair of Kecleon milling around in a shop. To his back and left was a Meowth flipping a coin, watching it gleam and shine in the sun, and to his back and left was a mysterious meditating green bird lying on the ground.

"damn."

"Yeah, this isn't all of it. Come on, we have an errand to run."

Amber bit Sans' hoodie and started dragging him towards the Kecleon pair. The green one turned towards Amber when he heard her footsteps and growling as Sans moped in the back.

"Oh, Amber, nice to see you. What is it that you need?"

She dropped Sans on the ground and smiled, causing Sans' head to crash into the stone with a painful thud.

"do you mind?"

Apparently she didn't mind.

"I'd like a few apples please." She pulled a few coins out of her personal bag and gave it to the Kecleon, who gave her a few apples in return. Sans was still rubbing his head on the ground.

"Thank you!" Amber gleefully replied. She stuffed the apples in her bag.

"Got any Red Gummis on you by any chance?"

The second Kecleon's eyes brightened and he ran into the back.

"I think he has one," said the first Kecleon. Sans heard some shuffling, crashes, and thuds before the purple Kecleon returned holding a red jellybean.

"Thanks!" She gave the purple Kecleon more coins and took the Gummi.

"Safe travels Amber!"

She waved goodbye and turned back to Sans, who was _still_ lying on the ground.

"Get your butt up and let's go!"

"ok." He slowly stood himself up and ran to catch up with the speedy Amber, who had turned left down the crossroad.

"hold up!"

He watched as she ran into a pink building with palm trees and beach decorations on the outside. The sign on the top read "Lele Café" in cursive.

"hm."

He walked up to the door and swung it open, a little bell ringing as he did so. Tropical music played in the background as various Pokémon and exploration teams conversed about daily events and tidbits of information. He searched around the place for any sign of Amber and saw her sitting at a booth, looking out the window.

Sans hurried over to sit on the other side.

"jeez, you need to slow down a bit."

She shook her head.

"Nah, you need to speed up a bit."

A Pokémon in a pink shell with curly pink hair floated by the two.

"Amber, I see you brought a friend today."

Amber turned to Sans.

"Yeah, I did. Sans, this is Tapu Lele. She runs this place."

"Nice to meet you." Sans shook her hand with his right.

"So, why are you guys here?" Tapu Lele rested her head on her hands and turned towards Amber.

"We're prepping for a mission that's pretty far out, by where Cam lives."

Tapu Lele jolted back a bit.

"Fountain Bluff? That's out of this branch's territory, isn't it?"

Amber shrugged.

"Dunno, the Unionmaster wants us to handle it." Amber tossed up the Red Gummi, Tapu Lele juggling it as she struggled to catch it.

"You got it Amber." Tapu Lele floated away.

Sans turned towards Amber.

"you seem to know tapu lele pretty well."

Amber looked in her bag.

"A lot of us do. Her place is pretty popular among explorers; if there's anyone who knows everyone, it's Tapu Lele. Or the Kecleon brothers."

Amber flicked out a pocket mirror and looked at her reflection. She adjusted her bandanna, smiled, and put it back in her bag.

"The others should get here soon."

" _Order up!"_

A coconut drink flew from who knows where and landed right in front of Amber. The cool, red liquid smelled delicious to Sans, yet he seemed a bit repulsed by it at the same time. A little red umbrella and a straw stuck out from the cup.

Amber took a sip from the drink and smiled.

"Aaaah, tastes great, as always. These things are my favorite. Want some?"

"i'm good, but thanks."

"Your loss Sans." She took another sip and sighed.

"The others should be here soon."

Almost on cue, the doorbell rang and the other four entered the Café, some of them carrying bags. They shoved Sans and Amber towards the wall as they scooted into the booth.

"I got some missions for us to complete on our way towards Fountain Bluff," remarked Faith. "Noctowl knows that we'll be gone a few days. Amber, you got the apples?"

Amber rummaged through her bag and rolled the apples across the table towards Faith, who put them in the team's treasure bag. Faith looked towards Cameron and Papyrus.

"Supplies all good?"

Cameron looked up pensively and went through a mental checklist of items.

"Oran Berries, Escape Orbs, Reviver Seeds, equipment, Max Elixirs, Gravelerocks…yeah, we should be good to go." He pulled a cardboard box out from under the table filled with blue spheres, seeds, berries, rocks, and jars.

"Excellent." Faith took all the stuff and dumped it into her treasure bag.

"NYEH!? HOW DO YOU FIT THAT ALL IN THERE?!"

Faith held up her badge, which now glowed with a bronze tint.

"Our Union level goes up as we complete missions. The bag can hold more stuff, we can store more things at Kangaskhans, you know…upgrades." Faith sighed.

"Although, the others are way ahead of us…some of them are on Silver already…"

"Don't worry!" piped Amber, "we'll catch up to them eventually! Besides, we have Sans and Papyrus. I'm sure this trip will be very productive." She looked away and grimaced.

"Or painful…haha."

Sans shrugged and slammed the table, causing Amber's drink to pop upwards.

"i'm all good with this preparation, but what's the plan? we don't have all day, remember?" He slyly looked towards Amber, who punched him in the arm, unamused.

Faith unfurled the map and spread it across the wooden tabletop, the paper taking up about half of the available space. Some golden circles were placed above landmarks, some places covered by clouds. Her cheeks sparked as she looked over the paper.

"We'll do a mission here, at the Lost Forest, first. Nothing too big, nothing special." She moved her finger a bit more to the northeast.

"We'll stop by the Leaky Caverns, check there for a lost item."

"isn't that where you guys went to find us?"

"Yeah it is, now that you mention it," replied Faith. Finally, she pointed at a field just past the cave symbol.

"We'll camp out after finishing a mission at the Grassy Plains. Big day, we have to be ready for it."

Sans saw Amber shiver out of the corner of his eye. He had almost forgot about what happened there a couple days ago. He hoped they wouldn't run into that Amalgamate again.

"Does everyone understand the first leg of the plan?" asked Faith looking around. Nobody spoke up to oppose it.

"Good. We'll set out now." She rolled up the paper and put it away as Cameron hit the table.

"Right now?! Are you serious?!"

Faith smiled and wink.

"Of course! If we don't leave now we won't reach our destination by nightfall. That would be disasterous."

Cameron pouted and looked away.

"Ugh, fine. I would have suggested tomorrow but it looks like nobody else agrees with me…again."

Faith hopped out of the booth and slung her pack around both of her shoulders.

"Saddle up team, we're leaving!"

Faith was followed by Papyrus, Cameron, then Sans. Amber quickly downed the rest of her drink then flicked Poké towards the passing Tapu Lele. She rushed out to join the rest of the group as they marched out of Coastal Cove.

Sans, meanwhile, stuck his hands in his hoodie pockets and smiled as they walked down the dirt path past the Union. It seemed like the group was getting in one hell of a job, and Faith wasn't making easy on any of them. If she was like this _all the time_ , he didn't know how the other two were able to keep up or tolerate her constant drive for success. He certainly didn't mind, but he didn't care about a lot of things.

Maybe this would help solve his problem, Sans thought. Even after yesterday's chat with Alakazam, he still had learned almost nothing about his past or what his future holds. All he knew was that the Prophecy had something to do with him, likely him and his brother being the two mentioned in the beginning lines.

He turned to glance at Papyrus, who was cheerfully marching beside him. He was a bit worried; Papyrus was a go-getter and got himself into trouble a couple times, like the time he nearly ran into Charizard's Flamethrower…proceeding to directly run into Charizard's Fire Spin. Regardless, he seemed to be fine holding his own and nothing seemed to affect his always ambitious personality.

Sans hoped that things would stay somewhat normal, no crazy Prophecy events jumping on him like a mouse chases cheese. Deep inside, however, Sans knew that if Alakazam was right and they are indeed a part of the Prophecy, the dreams and discoveries he had so far were just the beginning.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	8. Team Claw

**Sorry for the long time between uploads guys! I've been really busy recently, and I haven't had as much time to write as I wished. I'll try and keep writing, but uploads will continue to be slower. Sorry :(.**

 **Anyways, onto the story!**

* * *

"Hey Sans, watch your six!"

"wha-oh!" Sans brought up his bone and blocked a Razor Leaf attack before charging up and hitting the Sunflora in the head. The Sunflora got up easily and shook it off.

"aw crap, that didn't work."

"I gotcha Sans!" Amber screamed and hopped over the diving Sans to blow flames in the Sunflora's face, sending it reeling. It turned right down an explored path and left the group. She turned to face Sans.

"C'mon, you have to be more careful! We have a client with us! You can't let them be hurt you know."

Sans chuckled and laughed. He turned to face the client, a Teddiursa, who they were supposed to take down to around B7F, farther than they reached on the Butterfree assignment. Because there were five of them anyways, only three could go on the guard assignment.

"you're fine, right?"

"Um…sure."

Sans turned back to face Amber.

"see, no issues!"

"A little help over here!"

Amber and Sans both turned to see Cameron shooting a beam of bubbles at _something_ around the corner.

"Bit in a tight squeeze!" he shouted.

"you get it."

"Ugh, fiiiiine."

Amber ran past Teddiursa and Sans and hopped off the wall in front of Cameron. Her eyes suddenly widened and she turned towards Sans.

"You guys better run! WUAAGH!"

Amber and Cameron both dove out of the way of a giant stone tail, the rocks crashing into the grass. Teddiursa shivered in fear as Sans watched a giant rock snake appear from around the corner.

"It's Onix!" shouted Cameron. "I'm out!"

Amber tossed him an Oran Berry as the two sprinted left past the crossroads.

"come on, let's go."

Sans ran to catch up, Teddiursa right behind him. He could hear the Onix slithering behind, so he took a peek; bad decision. It was right on his tail.

"god dammit." Sans jumped over the sprinting Teddiursa and slammed his bone into the ground, causing a giant earthquake. The Onix jolted back from the tremors and seemed to be stunned temporarily, so Sans continued on towards the rest of the group.

"Come on, we found the stairs! Let's go, let's go!" Amber was standing by the stone staircase, Cameron already on the next floor. Teddiursa ran through as well, leaving Sans and Amber.

"Did you deal with the Onix?"

"uh…"

" _ **RAWWWWWR!"**_

They both jumped.

"I will take that as a no."

Amber and Sans jumped down the staircase just before a giant boulder crushed them. They toppled down the steps and landed hard on the floor. They both laid on the ground in pain for a short moment.

"Owwowow…that hurt."

"no kidding genius."

"Ha, funny."

Sans and Amber slowly stood up, Cameron and Teddiursa in front of them. They were in the clearing where they had found Caterpie before.

"Hm?" inquired Amber. "We've been here before. I don't ever remember stairs being here."

"They're behind us," muttered Cameron, pointing his right flipper at the new staircase.

"easy pass i suppose," laughed Sans. "Let's go."

Sans was about to descend the stairs when he suddenly heard a rustling from behind him. He turned quickly, but nothing was there.

"Hey Sans?" asked Amber from below. "Is there something wrong?"

Sans' eyes darted back and forth, checking his surroundings.

"i thought i heard something…"

"I think it's just your imagination. Hurry up now!"

Sans clunked down to B5F, fog obscuring his vision.

"It's pretty foggy in here," said Cameron, pointing towards Amber's bag. She handed the Treasure Bag to him and he dug through it, picking up one of the blue orbs.

"Hm, what does that do?" Amber asked, tilting her head confused. Cameron rolled his eyes and looked at her like she was an idiot.

"It's a Sunny Orb," he replied, "it's going to clear up the fog." Cameron smashed the orb on the floor and beams of sunlight descended into the mystery dungeon, dissipating the fog.

"See? It clears the fog. Now we can see." He abruptly handed Amber the bag and continued off down a path with Teddiursa.

Amber sighed as she turned to Sans, an annoyed expression on her face.

"He thinks he knows everything down here," pouted Amber, "he refuses to listen to anyone but Faith really, and she has a hard time getting him to listen sometimes."

"hm, why is that you think?"

Amber shrugged and smiled.

"I dunno, but it doesn't matter! We have this mission to finish anyways. We should find him now."

"geez, alright." Amber took off down the same path, leaving Sans in her dust.

"huh, what's that?" He turned around again, hearing more rustling in the grass.

"i swore i heard something this time." He carefully backed up towards the path, surveying the room.

"welp." He spun around and sprinted down the opening between the tree lines, trying to find Amber or Cameron. Sans turned left and right, backtracked a couple times, but he couldn't find them.

"Hey Sans!" shouted a voice, Amber suddenly appearing behind him. She slowly trotted up and smiled.

"uh, hey."

"Sans, I finally found you!" He turned around, completely stunned, and saw Amber run up from the side. His eyes darted between the two Ambers, the first on his left and the second on his right.

"ugh, now i'm seeing things," he moaned, leaning on his bone like a crutch.

"Sans, that's a fake!" shouted the second Amber. "You have to strike it down!"

"She's the fake Sans!" replied the first Amber. "Take her down before she gets us!"

The second Amber pushed past Sans and started scratching the first one, both of them eventually scratching each other as much as possible.

"Gaaah! Sans do something!" shouted both of them. Sans felt his head spinning; what the heck was he supposed to do now? They both looked identical; the same neat fur, the same determined tone, they both even had green bandannas and Treasure Bags. Yet, one was a fake.

"uh…." Sans stepped back, but he ran into another Pokémon, who pushed him forward.

"Geez Sans, watch where you're going, you're going to get yourself hurt again," replied the Pokémon. It had a feminine voice and sounded like…Amber.

He turned around and saw a third Amber looking at him confused.

"Hey Sans, what's wrong?"

He kept looking back and forth between all three Ambers and clutched his skull mask.

"good god! i can't take this!" He collapsed to the ground and fell asleep, leaving the third Amber alone.

"Eep!" She looked at the two other Ambers and saw they continuous scratching each other.

"Both of you imposters made Sans pass out, good job! Now take this!" Amber reeled back and blew flames towards the other two Ambers, who flew back stunned. Their forms started glowing as they transformed, one into a pink blob and the other into a little black and red Pokémon.

Amber ran over to Sans and started shaking him vigorously, causing him to awake.

"ugh…amber?"

She helped Sans stand up slowly, Sans using his bone for stability.

"i just had this crazy dream…there were three of you."

"Sans, that wasn't a dream." She pointed at the passed out Pokémon.

"That was a Zorua and a Ditto you saw. Neither of them were the real me. Both of those Pokémon have the ability to 'transform' into any other Pokémon they so desire." They both walked over to the Zorua.

"But now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure Zorua don't hang out around these parts…" She shrugged.

"Whatever! We're behind schedule! Let's go go go!"

"whaaaaa!" She started pushing Sans down the pathway, sprinting him uncontrollably.

"slow down!"

"No! We're going to be laaate!"

They both tumbled and faceplanted, right in front of Cameron's feet.

"At this rate guys, we're not going to finish this mission in time," he muttered, leaning on a tree trunk.

Amber got up and started looking around the room.

"Where's Teddiursa?"

"Already ahead," replied Cameron.

"You mean you didn't follow them?!" shouted Amber. She quickly ran down the stairs.

"Amber, don't go!" Cameron ran in after her, Sans stunned. Again. Who knew a mission could be this exciting.

Sans suddenly felt nauseous, a breeze brushing against the back of his neck. He jumped around, holding his bone in a ready position, but nothing was there again. He had definitely _felt_ it this time; was a Pokémon following them? Amber had said Zorua don't tend to hang out in the Lost Forest, so maybe that Zorua was stalking Sans and the other on the way down.

"ugh, this is getting annoying." He turned and walked down the staircase, his head almost instantly taken off by a beam of light.

"Sans! Duck!" Amber suddenly dove and tackled him, saving him from being taken out by another light beam.

"It's a Torterra!" she shouted, "and it's mad!" Her head jolted to see Cameron fly into a wall, unconscious.

"well…let me up so i can help!" She jumped off and ran back around a corner, her battle screams echoing in Sans' head. He jumped up and swung his bone as he turned, blocking another Solar Beam. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as he thought, as the beam disarmed him, sending his bone flying down in the other direction.

He turned and saw Amber limping towards him, her entire body covered in bruises and scratches.

"Help…" She collapsed on the ground, shocking Sans. This Torterra must be tough.

" **WHY ARE YOU HERE?!"** rumbled a large voice, large thundering footsteps following it. Sans turned and saw the giant turtle, a tree growing on the back of it's shell. Something told him he wasn't pleased.

"You are intruding on our territory!" shouted Torterra. Amber struggled to get up next to Sans, but he didn't look. He was focused on Torterra.

"we don't mean to trespass sir. we are just escorting someone down the mystery dungeon."

"Yet you march into our sacred land and steal our treasures!" Torterra replied. "Not only that, you've knocked out several of us!"

"us, steal your treasures?!" shouted Sans. "we would never do such a thing. we were just trying to show teddiursa around."

Torterra stomped right up to Sans.

"That Teddiursa stole our treasures Cubone!"

"wha?!"

"I'm sorry about that," shouted a voice to Sans' right, causing both Sans and Torterra to turn their heads. Teddiursa was holding a burlap bag over her shoulder, tossing an emerald in her hand.

"But we need this treasure, to explore the mysteries of the Lost Forest."

"who is we?" weakly asked Amber, who forced herself up. Teddiursa laughed.

"Us? We are Team Claw! I, Teddiursa, am the leader of this group!" Two other Pokémon appeared from behind her, including the Zorua.

"dammit, i knew we were being followed!"

"These are my partners in crime, Zorua and Sableye!" exclaimed Teddiursa, the other two posing.

"Hehehe, you kids are easy to trick, but we must be going now. Thanks for helping us!"

"You aren't going anywhere!" Torterra stomped and unleashed a giant Solar Beam aimed at Teddiursa, but Sableye came up from behind and countered with a Shadow Beam, blocking the attack from hitting Teddiursa.

"Bye!" Team Claw sprinted off with the treasures, leaving the battered Team Green and Torterra to their own thoughts.

"Seriously?" scoffed Amber, "those thieves think they can stop us?!" She slowly started to limp down towards where Team Claw ran but she collapsed.

"Not…on my…watch."

"woah woah, don't move."

Amber squirmed.

"But we have to stop them!"

"you're in no shape to do that, and neither is cameron."

"My apologies," muttered Torterra, "I jumped to conclusions."

"Erk, it's not your fault," groaned Cameron, who held his left flipper and limped towards them. "We should have known that this part of the mystery dungeon is sacred. I saw those three dash off past me with their loot."

"I can't believe anyone would do such a thing," stuttered Amber. "That's pretty low to take advantage of an exploration team."

"yea, but there's some people in the world who do that," replied Sans, sighing. He felt something fuzzy in the back of his head, but he didn't know what.

"they could do things much worse, you know. be happy they only took the treasure and left everyone else alone."

"What are we going to tell Faith?" questioned Amber, standing up weakly and looking in her bag for berries and seeds. She gave everyone an Oran Berry and began eating.

"We failed a mission," scoffed Cameron, chomping on his berry. "It's not like it's something that hasn't happened before, you know."

"Yeah Cameron, but I'm not exactly in the mood to get a scolding from Faith."

Sans slowly munched on his, the cool blue juice swirling inside his mouth. He felt a bit refreshed. Torterra sat there, silent.

"i heard about that," said Sans suddenly. "what does happen when you fail a mission?"

Amber shrugged.

"It's not exactly good, but some missions are more difficult than expected; the ratings the Union gives aren't always accurate. You could run into some pretty interesting things on what you think is an E level assignment."

"Faith doesn't accept failure well, so, you know, she get's pretty mad at everyone, including herself, when we fail," continued Cameron.

"what about team claw?"

Amber growled when Sans mentioned the thieves.

"Those rotten Pokémon…we'll get them for this. They don't trick me, or anyone."

"They're crafty Amber," said Cameron, "I don't think chasing after them will end well for anyone. We'll probably attract some unwanted attention in the process as well."

She continued to snarl and growl.

"Then next time…I'm not going easy on them."

"Ugh…whatever." Cameron finished his berry and stood up. "We should leave now. Let's go." He nodded to Torterra.

"Sorry for intruding Mr. Torterra. I hope you can forgive us for this."

"It is perfectly okay," replied Torterra, "as long as you don't bring any more thieves with you."

"Don't worry sir! We'll take down all the thieves!" piped Amber. Cameron dug in Amber's bag and pulled out an Escape Orb.

"We'll be on our way now," he exclaimed. Cameron threw the orb on the ground and blue light enveloped the three, teleporting them away from the Lost Forest and back to their camp outside the treeline. Papyrus and Faith were playing a game of war when they all tumbled onto the ground. Her cheeks buzzed when she saw the pile of Amber, Cameron, and Sans.

"So…how did it go?! Give me the money and I'll handle it from here."

Sans slowly stood up and pushed Amber towards Faith, who gulped.

"Well, you see…uh…we uh…didn't finish the mission."

"You failed?!" shouted Faith. She started laughing nervously and looking around. Sans and Cameron looked at each other before glancing at the stunned Faith.

"B-but it was an easy assignment!"

"Not with a giant Torterra striking us down," mumbled Cameron.

"I don't want any of your flack right now Cameron!" she screamed, her voice echoing in the morning sun.

"Geez Faith, leave him be!" exclaimed Amber, "He wasn't wrong!" Faith ran up to Amber and ended up right in her face.

"You're a Fire type! Why didn't you deal with it?!" Amber backed up, clearly angered by that remark.

"What, you expect me to defeat a fully evolved Pokémon that's the king of the Lost Forest!"

Faith nodded angrily.

"That's right! I don't expect anything less from you guys. We're an Exploration Team, and we can't let anyone down."

"Come on Faith," said Cameron, "we aren't perfect, nobody's perfect."

"Yet you failed an escort mission! An _easy_ one!"

"You weren't there!" screamed Amber, "I want to see how you would do against Torterra!"

"Better than all your sorry butts!"

"GRAAAH!" Amber ran up and tackled Faith, the two rolling up into a fight. Cameron was taken aback before he realized what was happening.

"You two need to stop!"

"FUCK OFF!" they both screamed. One of them kicked Cameron back towards Sans, who was toppled by the momentum.

"Jesus Christ," stammered Cameron, "they're really going at each other."

Sans hadn't spoken a single word, and he stayed silent as he watched Amber and Faith scratch and bite at each other in the middle of camp. Papyrus, who was focused on the cards, had not yet noticed the fighting.

"this isn't…normal, i hope."

Cameron sighed.

"I wish I could say yes. But I can't. I must admit that they never got into this big of a fight before."

The two girls continued to snarl words and argue as they kept rolling around and attacking each other.

"We butt heads a lot, but all of us have been friends for awhile. If it wasn't for that, our personalities are all so different that we would have no chance of getting along."

"should i break it up?" asked Sans. Cameron looked at Sans like he was insane.

"Are you serious?! You have to let them burn their anger off. They'll stop eventually. The most it's taken is an hour."

"an hour?"

"Yeah, but this is much _much_ worse." Cameron's beak shivered a bit as he watched his friends fight.

"It's the pressure you know. Faith doesn't want to mess up under Noctowl's assignment and Amber feels like she's being unfairly treated. They're both in the right and the wrong if you think about it."

"You need to back off and give us space!" screeched Amber, scratching at Faith's face.

"I'm sick of all your reckless adventures and decisions Amber! You're putting everyone in danger!"

The two bumped into Papyrus, who fell into the card log with a startled "NYEH?". When Sans turned around, he saw Cameron sitting on a rock looking through the team's supplies.

"so you aren't doing anything?"

"Nope." He continued to rummage through the bag. "If you want to get yourself seriously hurt, by all means, do something."

Sans kept looking between Cameron and the two fighting girls. Cameron seemed quite calm about the situation; they were his friends after all, shouldn't he be trying to split them up? They were really mad at each other and it didn't seem the fighting was stopping soon. He should probably do something.

"you guys need to stop," he suddenly exclaimed. The girls kept fighting.

"someone is going to get hurt, stop."

"Good! I want her to be hurt by this, she needs to learn!" shouted Faith.

"YOU'RE the one who needs to learn!"

"GRAAAAH!"

They kept fighting, Sans still stunned. He sighed and pulled out his bone; looks like he had to resort to Plan B.

"that's enough!" Sans jumped up, spun his bone around, and slammed it into the ground, violently shaking the camp. The two girls separated, shocked. Cameron spilled the supplies all over himself and Papyrus was using his bone as an anchor to prevent himself from flying into the air.

Sans walked in between Faith and Amber and held his hands up.

"fighting won't solve anything right now," he scolded. "besides, that mission was destined to fail."

"Oh, so you're taking _her_ side now, huh?" shouted Faith, "You're okay with failing, huh?!"

"no, i'm not," said Sans, pointing his bone at her. "but that client had different aims than we expected. they just wanted to get down there to get the treasure of the lost forest."

Faith froze momentarily.

"after they got the treasure and saw torterra had knocked us out, they announced their presence and sprinted off with the loot. the trio called themselves team claw."

"He's right Faith," groaned Amber, much of her body torn up and bloody. "They were on us from the start."

"What do _you_ have to say about this!" Faith exclaimed, pointing at a surprised Cameron. He looked around to pin it on someone else, but nobody was near him.

"They're right Faith," he replied, "Teddiursa was aiming for the treasure the entire time. They had us fooled."

Faith looked between Sans, Amber, and Cameron before sighing.

"Hmph. You should have known they were crooks the entire time though."

"Seriously?!" shouted Amber. "Not even a 'Sorry for misunderstanding!' or 'My bad' for your friends?!"

"We may be friends Amber, but success is a must right now," Faith replied. "I need better from all of you."

"You need a jolt back to reality Faith," exclaimed Amber, "not everything is possible."

"And you guys need to try harder," Faith scoffed.

"GRRRRRR!" Amber tried to run back at Faith but Sans pushed back and stopped her from attacking.

"Let me at her Sans!" shouted Amber. "That bitch needs her mind fixed." She struggled to get past Sans, but he didn't stop resisting.

"no. you'll only make it worse."

"What did you call me?!" shouted Faith.

"You heard me."

"You little-"Suddenly, Sans saw Cameron come in to block Faith.

"Stop it you two! This fight is immature and needs to stop!"

Faith and Amber kept trying to run towards each other, but Cameron and Sans continued to push back.

"SANS?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"stay out of this one paps."

Amber suddenly began to start tearing up and whimpering.

"Come on Sans, please let me do this! I need to!"

"no you don't, just simmer down."

"Please!" She kept trying to run past him, but Sans pushed back. Amber was tiring and Sans didn't need to expend as much effort to stop her.

"no."

"Sans please!"

"you need to calm down." He quickly darted his eyes towards Cameron, who seemed to have the same issue.

"Saaans!" Amber suddenly broke down and started crying, shocking Sans. Amber simply just sat down and bawled her eyes out. Faith seemed to have completely calmed herself down, so her and Cameron just watched.

"amber…?"

"I-It's just…so much t-to deal with!" wailed Amber. He knelt down next to her.

"just let it out."

"S-So much pressure, so m-much fighting, training, everything…" She continued to bawl.

"I thought this would be a d-dream come true b-but…it's not what I t-thought!"

"what do you mean?"

"The expectations are so high, all my friends are fighting…I m-miss home…" She leaned her head on Sans' shoulder and kept crying.

"I-it's hard Sans…I don't know if I can keep up…"

Papyrus was now standing behind Sans.

"NYEH HEH HEH! AMBER, YOU MUSN'T GIVE UP! YOUR FRIENDS NEED YOU! YOU'RE NOT WEAK!"

Sans turned back from Papyrus to Amber.

"he's not wrong amber. it's hard to deal with it. trust me, i know." Sans stopped momentarily. He knew…but…how? He felt bad for Amber, her feelings of hopelessness and regret…but he didn't know how he was able to relate with that. He never felt hopeless during his time here in the Pokémon world…

"but you have to keep pushing, and keep going. i know you may feel that you can't do anything to make anyone happy, but you can't stop."

"B-But Sans…S-Sans…" Amber kept whimpering, but at least the intense bawling had stopped. Sans didn't know what to do next, so he looked at Cameron and Faith. Cameron shrugged, and Faith remained silent, likely feeling sorry for what she did. Or at least Sans hoped she did.

"what?"

"W-Why are you doing this Sans? I know I asked you this before but…we haven't known each other that long, or any of us that long, yet…you put all your trust in us, even though you had no way of knowing we would be good Pokémon. W-Why? Why are you helping me through this?! I-I'm so confused!"

She started crying again.

" _oh geez,"_ thought Sans, _"now what? all of this is getting to her. too much information too fast. uhhhhh-."_

He wrapped his arms around Amber.

"i could tell you were a good person instantly. i hate seeing people like this."

Amber sniffled a bit.

"i know what it's like to be weak and hopeless, especially being held captive by graveler. but there's always something out there, no matter how small the chances are, there's something."

"B-But-."

"people are depending on you, you know. you aren't alone. we're here if you need us."

Amber's crying softened.

"i'm here if you need me."

"T-Thank you…Sans…" Amber slowly got up on her own and looked at Sans.

"I needed that. I really needed someone to say that."

"it's okay. i know you would have done the same for me."

"Even though we don't know each other very well?"

"yea. i'm sure of it."

Amber giggled a bit.

"Wow, you really trust us, don't you?"

"i have to trust my team, right?"

She burst out laughing.

"Yeah…you're…right…" Amber's voice trailed off and she stood their silently, her face expressionless.

"…amber?"

"…UUuuuunnn." Amber suddenly collapsed to the ground with a groan.

"amber?!"

"Uggh…" He turned and saw Faith fall down as well, unconscious.

"faith too?!"

"Don't worry Sans, they're just exhausted from that little fight they just had." Cameron walked over to Sans and put his flipper on his shoulder.

"They'll be okay by tomorrow." Sans turned to Cameron.

"you mean we're stopping here?"

"Seeing as none of us, except for Papyrus, is in any shape for another adventure, I think it's the right decision." He looked at Amber and Faith.

"Besides, with both of them out, I'm the one in the charge."

"bro, you do know papyrus can't be stopped right?"

"NYEH HEH HEH! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM ALWAYS READY!" Papyrus posed as if to affirm Sans' remark.

"It's not so much physically as mentally too you know," laughed Cameron. "All of us are tired in all ways after Team Claw." Cameron carried the two unconscious Pokémon into their tents before walking towards Sans, who was about to enter his tent.

"And Sans…thank you for doing that."

"doing what?"

"Helping Amber. I've never seen her breakdown like that before. Ever. And I've known Faith and Amber for awhile. They've gotten into plenty of fights, but what you just saw was brand new to me."

"and?"

"She opened up to you Sans. She trusts you more than you think, even though I don't as much since you're still kinda new around here." Cameron chuckled.

"Get some rest Sans. You'll need it." Cameron opened the flap to his tent and disappeared behind the canvas. Sans shambled towards his straw mattress and threw himself onto the bedding.

Team Claw…those miscreants. He was going to get them back eventually for tricking him and his friends, but that wasn't bothering him as much as the fight that came after. Up until now, the three had been relatively okay with one another, but it seemed that there were conflicts stretching a lot deeper than Sans had initially thought. The three were only held together by time; Sans knew that wouldn't be enough if they were to also be dragged into the future conflict Alakazam had mentioned.

He rolled in his hoodie jacket. For once in his life (or what he thought was his life), he just couldn't sleep.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	9. A Lost Stick

Sans slowly shambled along the dusty path next to Papyrus as they made their way next through the dark forest canopy towards the Leaky Caverns, the same place he and Papyrus had found themselves the first time they woke up in the Pokémon world. The group was completely silent, Faith in the lead with both pack straps around her shoulders. The Wonder Map bounced on the side of the Treasure Bag as she marched through the trees. Amber walked quietly to Sans' left, and Cameron seemed to be amidst his own thoughts to Sans' right. Papyrus was trotting cheerfully behind Sans, spinning his bone in time with his steps.

At least the two girls had calmed down after about eighteen hours of sleep. Neither of them had spoken to each other the entire way towards Leaky Caverns, but Cameron said it was completely normal for this to happen after a huge fight, so Sans wasn't too worried. Cameron did warn him that they would have to stay separated for at least twenty-four hours to be safe.

"Hey guys, I think we're here," mumbled Faith.

Papyrus tilted his head.

"NYEH? WHERE?"

"Right outside this forest clearing," she replied. "We should meet the client there."

A moment of silence ensued.

"Sans, Papyrus. You two come with me on this one today. Amber and Cameron you should sit this one out."

"Sounds good chief," laughed Cameron.

The trees slowly began to thin out in numbers until they finally exited the tree line, right in front of a small rocky hill.

"huh, this really is where we started."

"Felt like a long time ago, huh?" chuckled Amber silently.

"yea…no kidding. and it wasn't even that long ago."

"Okay crew! Let's climb!" Faith started to ascend the rocks but she froze when Papyrus simply ran past her, jumping from rock to rock like it was nothing.

"NYEH HEH HEEEEEH!"

"What in the-"

"wait up bro!" Sans pulled his bone out and started to use it as a jumping off point, pressing it into the ground to gain traction and push him upwards along the rocks. His feet were well suited to the rocky terrain for some reason, and while he would much rather walk up a set of stairs this would be fine.

"SANS! YOU FINALLY STOPPED BEING LAZY!"

"nah."

The brothers waited for about three minutes for the other three to finish climbing the rocky hill.

"My…god…how did you…do that…" gasped Faith, falling on the ground, out of breath.

The two brothers looked at each other.

"skill."

"Like you have any."

"funny joke."

Soon enough, Amber and Cameron joined the three of them on the cliff. Cameron naturally stood himself between Amber and Faith, just to make sure they wouldn't start fighting again.

"Our client is right here," exclaimed Faith, pointing to a brown bird, "let's talk to him."

"Aren't Farfetch'd supposed to have green sticks?" asked Amber.

"Yeah, they can't really live without one," replied Cameron. "This is pretty concerning, although I'm sure it has a backup stick. Not that it bodes well with their mood."

Amber gulped.

As soon as the group came close to the cave entrance the FarFetch'd jolted up.

"Thank goodness you're here! I thought you'd never come!"

"Sorry, we ran into some trouble yesterday," replied Faith. FarFetch'd bowed.

"No no, it's perfectly fine. What isn't fine is the fact my stick is lost somewhere in there." He pointed in the cave.

"Well sir, do you know where it is?"

"Somewhere in there."

"I mean, floor wise."

"Not exactly," said FarFetch'd, scratching his chin. "Before B5F."

"Thank you, we will get you your stalk back," replied Faith. "The other two will stay with you until we return."

Faith, Sans, and Papyrus walked into the cavern and felt a dark, gloomy mist descend upon them: Mystery Dungeon.

"Okay guys, here we go."

The trio walked down the stone stairs into the first floor.

"damn, it's dark in here. we can't see anything outside of this room."

Faith looked around carefully.

"Yeah, some dungeons are like this. You have to be careful."

"NYEH?!" Papyrus suddenly started swiping at something in the air.

"I got it!" Faith unleashed a small electric charge, zapping whatever creature was bothering Papyrus. A blue and purple bat fell to the ground.

"yikes, bats."

"Zubats. Come on." Faith led the two down a path to the left, where their field of vision decreased even further.

"heck? now i can't see past either of you."

"It's some thing with mystery dungeons," explained Faith. She suddenly stopped, causing Papyrus to run into Sans.

"Swap with me Sans, I need help here." She slid past Sans, pushing him forward.

"uhhh…" A Geodude stood in front of him. Sans used his bone to block a punch from the rock with arms then whacked it in the head with his bone, causing it to fly backwards, out of view.

"Nice one." She pushed him back again.

"geez, no need to be so forceful." Sans was a bit on edge this time; he was the only one who saw Team Claw last time; who knows if they would be stalking them again on this mission.

"Come on guys, this way!" Faith turned right down another corridor and led them to an open room with the staircase.

"EEP! Steelix!" she shouted. A giant metallic rock snake slept in the corner of the room, right next to the stairs.

"W-What should we do?" She started looking around, panicky.

"erm…"

"NYEH!" Papyrus threw his bone at the Steelix, which dented a bit of the metal before flying back to him. The Steelix woke up and roared as loud as it could, shaking the entire cave. Rocks fell down from the ceiling.

"Good job, now it's mad." Faith dove to the right to try and get around Steelix, but the snake kept looking at her. Sans ran straight forward, using his bone as a vault pole to jump over Steelix's tail while Papyrus distracted it with continuous Bonearangs.

"Come on, almost there!" Faith's tail suddenly glowed chrome and she whacked the Steelix in the face with her tail, causing it to reel back.

"Kya! Critical hit!"

Sans jumped up and slammed his bone into the ground, violently shaking the cave once more. The Steelix hopped around before collapsing. The earthquake must have been super effective.

"Now, into the next floor, before the floor collapses!" Faith dove down the staircase, followed by Sans and Papyrus.

"Scour the floors for the stalk. For all we know it could have been on the last floor, but it's too late now."

"wow, great news."

"I think you're looking for this!" shouted a voice from behind Sans. Sounded awfully familiar.

"aw fuck, not these guys again."

"What, who?" asked Faith.

"Us, Team Claw!" Teddiursa suddenly emerged from a corner with Farfetch'd's stalk, waving it at Sans. Zorua and Sableye appeared from behind.

"NYEH HEH HEH?! ARE THEY HELPING TOO?"

"Haha! We followed you here and entered the dungeon before you did!" shouted Zorua. "Now we will return the stalk to Farfetch'd and get the reward money too! Huehuehue!"

"Ho ho ho!" cheered Sableye.

Faith stood back in a fighting stance.

"So these are those crooks you were talking about yesterday."

"you bet," replied Sans. He pulled his bone out and pointed it at Team Claw. "don't think we're going to let you get away with it this time."

"Okay kids, let's skedaddle!" Teddiursa tried to hightail it towards the stairs but Papyrus was suddenly standing in front of them with his bone out.

"NYEH HEH HEH! THE GRRREAT PAPYRUS WILL CAPTURE THESE CROOKS!"

"Yeepers, what now boss?" asked Zorua.

"Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?" questioned Teddiursa. Faith, Sans, and Papyrus didn't move.

"Welp, looks like I have no other choice." Teddiursa slowly turned away from Papyrus as if to surrender but suddenly jumped up and scratched Papyrus in the face, causing him to step back, shocked. Teddiursa followed up with a fiery punch, sending Papyrus reeling.

"NYYYEEEEH!"

"faith, let's do it."

"I'm with you Sans. KYAAAA!"

The two ran forward towards Zorua and Sableye who were guarding Teddiursa while she fought Papyrus. Sans was about to hit Zorua, but he feinted his attack and Faith lept over him and landed an Iron Tail on Zorua, who flew back, a bit stunned but still okay. Faith let loose a Thunderbolt, which was countered by a Dark Pulse from Sableye.

Sans swung his bone down on Sableye, who blocked it with Shadow Claw then swiped at Sans, scratching his arm. He stepped back before he felt energy surge through him, something he hadn't felt for quite some time. He jumped up in the air and raised his hand, throwing Sableye in the air. However, the effect suddenly dissipated, freeing Sableye from Sans' grasp.

"wha-"

"Sans, Psychic type moves don't work on Dark types!" Faith swung an Iron Tail attack at Zorua, who dodged it easily before hitting Faith back with an unknown move. She crashed into the wall, but Faith got up easily.

Sans slammed his bone into the ground, causing additional rumbles to spread throughout the floor. Every Pokémon started bouncing around, even Teddiursa and Papyrus, who were on the other side of the room. Sans saw the green stalk fly out of Teddiursa's hands, and leaped to grab it, but Sableye snatched it out of mid-air.

"gah, so close." Faith had rejoined the fight and ran up to Teddiursa, who was shocked by the sudden appearance of a new challenger. She zapped Teddiursa head on, causing the bear to kneel down, fur smoking from the electric blast.

"Urgh-"

"NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus hit Teddiursa back with his bone, crashing her into Zorua and Sableye.

"Owowow!" Teddiursa and the Dark types slowly stood up, still not giving up.

"Give it up now," shouted Faith, "we have the stick and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Haha…not yet." Teddiursa nodded towards the other two, who started charging Dark Pulses.

"Your Dark Type moves won't be enough! You can't strike us down with that!"

"I agree," replied Teddiursa. Three bracelets suddenly started glowing on Zorua, Sableye, and Teddiursa as the two zapped Teddiursa with the Shadow Pulses. Teddiursa started laughing maniacally, stunning Faith.

"They're…attacking their own team?"

Soon, Teddiursa was enveloped by a giant dark cloud, the only thing keeping her alive and safe the glowing bracelet.

"Now, face this…"

"SUPER ULTRA NIGHT SLASH!" they all shouted at the top of their lungs. Teddiursa ran at the three at an extremely high speed and unleashed the entire black cloud plus more in one huge dark line, smashing into the three Team Green members without warnings. Pain instantly spread throughout Sans' body, crushing his entire will. No moves he had endured had yet matched this.

"W-W-What is this!"

"i…don't know…" Sans' vision went blurry, but he saw the faint outline of Teddiursa picking up Farfetch'd's stalk and leaving the mystery dungeon.

"Sans…take…this…" Faith handed him two Oran Berries, one of which he handed to Papyrus. Sans took a bite, his vision instantly returning to normal.

"that…hurt…"

"They used those bracelets to power up that attack," continued Faith, "I don't know how though. I've never seen anything like it, not even in the Union."

"NYEH HEH HEH! THOSE THINGS GLOWED WHEN THEY ATTACKED THE BEAR!"

"yeah bro, you're right." He slammed the ground in frustration.

"god dammit, they got away again."

Faith sighed, disappointed.

"Is this what happened last time?"

"no, not exactly. they didn't pull anything like that on us, they just took advantage of the resident pokemon to get away."

"Urk, those crooks. Don't worry, we'll get them." Faith's eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh…now I really feel bad about yesterday…"

"it's all fine, you both just needed to let out some anger, you know."

"Sans."

"you don't need to apologize."

"Sans-"

"i told you-"

"Sans shut up."

"uh."

The room was suddenly silent as silent cries were heard farther in the dungeon.

"You heard that, right?"

"yeah."

"Let's go."

"after it? are you serious?"

"NYEH HEH HEH! OF COURSE SHE'S SERIOUS SANS!"

"Follow me."

The group followed the sounds of cries down the corridors, most of the residing Pokémon scared off by the fight that had just occurred. Everyone except for those who were crying. As they got closer, they slowly turned into moans, then groans of pain, until they were coming from just around the corner.

Sans' stomach suddenly started jolting around, nausea blasting him out of nowhere. Just like what happened at the Tree of Fates.

"oh god, let me take the lead," he groaned, holding his stomach. Faith looked at him, curious.

"What's wrong Sans?"

"please, just let me."

"Uh…okay…"

Sans leaned against the corner, trying not to throw up and praying it wasn't another Amalgamate.

"oh god…please… _please…_ "

Sans turned the corner and heard the moans and groans, but nothing seemed to be directly in front of him. It must be in the room.

"stay back. wait for my signal."

"Sans, someone needs help. I'm going."

"faith, don't!" Faith shoved herself past Sans, walking into the room. Sans sprinted to catch her, but he was limping from the battle earlier.

"Oh my god!" She shouted, surprised by what she saw. "What happened?! I gotta do something!"

"don't touch it!"

"Wha?!" Right when Sans entered the room, he saw the horrific sight of another Amalgamate, it's form moving and squirming without warning. Suddenly, one of the arms reached out and grabbed Faith.

"aw shit!"

"It's got me Sans, what do I do?!"

"don't panic!"

He quickly grabbed his bone and started hitting the Amalgamate's hand, freeing Faith from it. She stumbled back, shocked.

"That thing…it isn't-."

"those are pokémon who melted together. it's ghastly."

"I think I'm going to be sick-" Faith suddenly threw up on the ground.

"it's okay, it's not an easy sight to see." He saw Papyrus enter the room and stare at the Amalgamate, shocked. However, he didn't seem nearly as surprised as Faith.

"SANS? T-THAT COULDN'T BE AN-"

"yeah bro, it's an amalgamate all right."

"HOW DO I RECOGNIZE IT SANS?"

"i don't know bro. i don't know."

"I-I'M SCARED SANS."

Faith was still vomiting in the corner of the room.

"WHAT DO WE DO SANS? WE DON'T HAVE…UH…I DON'T KNOW. WE SHOULDN'T DO ANYTHING WITH IT I THINK."

"i was thinking the same thing bro."

"B-But," interrupted Faith, her vomiting session finished, "we can't just leave them there."

"faith, i should probably tell you something." Sans took a deep breath.

"remember that time when we searched for the missing butterfree and we found out absolutely nothing?"

"Go on."

"the truth is…amber and i did find something. we found the missing butterfree, but it was melted into an amalgamate, just like this, along with other pokémon."

Faith blinked, taking in the information.

"And why didn't you tell me this?"

"because it was extremely traumatizing at the time. i didn't want to cause any additional panic in the union." He glanced at the Amalgamate.

"besides, for some reason i think i know how these things work. or at least i used to, not sure anymore to be honest."

He stared Faith in the eyes.

"nobody. can. know. about. this."

"But Sans, this may be the reason behind all the disappearances. This would be crucial to the Union."

The Amalgamate groaned to affirm her point. Sans never had thought about that before.

"i…just don't like the feeling i'm getting from this. i'm almost one hundred percent sure these things aren't supposed to happen in this world."

"What do you mean this world?" asked Faith. Sans started sweating profusely; was she catching on?

"you know what i mean. i don't think pokémon melting is a natural thing. someone is causing this deliberately."

Faith smiled.

"Oh, I get it." She looked again at the Amalgamate.

"Shouldn't we at least put it out of it's misery?"

Sans grunted, frustrated by Faith's continuous efforts to try and help the Amalgamate. It was too unstable to get near it, let alone help it. It was a dangerous object at this point.

"too risky. we can't."

"So we let it suffer?!"

"it's the only option faith."

"There has to be at least _something_ we can do Sans."

"i'm sorry, but we can't."

"Sans, we have to help it in someway. We're members of the Exploration Union, it's our job."

"so you'd rather sacrifice your own life at an attempt to save multiple lives we don't even know we could possibly save?"

"I…yes."

Sans was shocked.

"well…we can't right now. like you said, we have something more important to do first." He glanced one last time at the Leaky Caverns Amalgamate.

"we may return later."

"Sans…I guess I have to go with you I this one now."

"NYEH HEH HEH! SANS, WHAT IF WE…RUN INTO MORE OF THEM?"

"we'll deal with that when it comes to it paps."

"Let's leave. I can't bear to watch that thing anymore."

Faith led the group out of the cavern, where Amber and Cameron were standing, clearly disturbed.

"Where's Farfetch'd?" asked Faith. Amber jumped, angry.

"Those Team Claw crooks came up with the stalk and pretended to be heroes, taking all the credit for the mission. They walked off with the reward money as well. Not that's…all that matters, of course. Hehe."

"I'm assuming they stole it from you, huh?" asked Cameron.

"actually, they found it first," replied Sans, "but they wouldn't have known to look if it wasn't for us."

"NYEH HEH! THEY USED SHINY BRACELETS TO CHARGE A POWERFUL ATTACK AND DESTROY US!"

"Yeah, if it wasn't for those bracelets we had it in the bag," said Faith. She turned to Amber.

"Sorry about yesterday, I jumped to conclusions. Again."

Amber sighed.

"Ugh, it's fine. Just don't make the same mistakes, okay?"

"I'll try."

Cameron, meanwhile, was thinking.

"You said glowing bracelets, right?"

"yeah, that's right."

He paced around.

"And they attacked Teddiursa with Dark type moves, then Teddiursa unleashed a Dark Type move with extra power?"

"exactly."

"They must have been Unity Loops."

"Unity Loops?" asked Faith, curious.

"Teams can use the power of Unity Loops to charge each other's attacks. It's pretty nifty, if I say so myself."

"Aw man, I want to get my hands on one of those!" exclaimed Amber.

"You can only get Unity Loops in one place, unless you steal it from someone who owns a Unity Loop."

"Darn it," pouted Amber. "We have to stop Team Claw in some way, right?"

"NYEH? AT THIS RATE WE WON'T GET ANYTHING DONE!"

"Papyrus is right," replied Faith. "There's gotta be something we can do, right?"

"Unless you guys want to travel across the sea to get Unity Loops, all we can do is continue on to save Sylveon," continued Cameron.

"Yeah…" Faith looked nervously towards Sans. She must be worried that we may run into more Amalgamates in the future. Sans was a bit worried about that prospect as well; Amalgamates were still in the equation regardless of where they went, and they would have to deal with them eventually as well. And now with Unity Loops plus his own personal assignment and the team's assignments, it seemed like nothing would get done fast enough.

"c'mon guys, we have to stop pouting over this and get moving if we want to save sylveon as soon as possible."

Faith looked at her Wonder Map and grimaced.

"Ack, you're right. We're already behind and at this rate we won't get there for awhile."

"Should we just…you know…skip everything in between and just go straight to Fountain Bluff?" piped Amber.

"Hm? You're okay with skipping your hometown?" asked Faith.

"As long as we can stop by on the way back," Amber replied.

"Cameron, what do you think?"

"Ugh…works with me I suppose." He crossed his arms and looked away. Faith looked towards Sans and Papyrus.

"hey, we're good with anything."

"Well, that settles it then! We're straight off to Fountain Bluff!"

Suddenly, rumbles echoed throughout the group.

"Of course, we should eat first!"

Team Green laughed off their stress as they sat down to eat before continuing their adventure towards Sylveon and Fountain Bluff.

* * *

 _Meanwhile, back at the Exploration Union…_

Noctowl sighed as he shuffled through the ever growing stack of papers. Additional reports kept coming in and there was nothing he could do. The Union was running short on exploration teams and there simply was not enough of them to handle this quantity of disappearances.

There was a knocking at the door, waking Noctowl.

"Come in please."

Sceptile slowly opened and closed the door.

"You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes, take a seat."

Sceptile took a seat in front of Noctowl's desk.

"I know we talked about this already, but I think the Prophecy is coming true."

"Sir, I don't think you get it-"

"Look at this." Noctowl slid a photograph towards Sceptile, who looked at it in horror.

"Sir…what the hell is this?"

"We found this…thing…yesterday by the Tree of Fates. The same place Team Green was sent to investigate after a Butterfree went missing."

"So what are you saying sir? This thing…these Pokémon…what have they become."

"I don't know Sceptile. I don't know how to fix it either. But it seems awfully like the disease described in the Prophecy."

"Noctowl, all it mentioned was a disease. Not the kind of disease. But I see what you mean sir."

"This might be the reason behind all the disappearances Noctowl, and I'm almost certain Team Green ran into one of these earlier."

Sceptile's expression turned to one of curiosity.

"What are you saying sir?"

"I'm saying, I think the Prophecy _is_ coming true."

"And what leads you to believe that?" Sceptile stood up and slammed his hands on the table.

"I think the two Pokémon described in the Prophecy have arrived in this world." Noctowl laughed softly.

"And I think I know just who they might be."

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	10. Lapras Port

**Hey guys! I've updated my profile a bit to include more information about the story. Who knows, maybe you'll find something...interesting.**

 **Um...yeah.**

 **10/24: Also, if you saw that accidental Chapter 11 upload...sorry! That wasn't supposed to come out yet :P  
It'll be around soon, don't worry!**

 **Let's get on to the story!**

* * *

"We're almost there guys…just a bit more!" exclaimed Cameron.

"God damn Cameron, I still don't know how you made it all the way to the Lost Forest with us! It's pretty damn far!" replied Amber.

"Maybe you'll have some appreciation for me now, huh?"

"Shut it Cameron, we're tired here, no need for your bragging," gasped Faith.

Sans slowly limped along with the rest of the group as they climbed the grassy hill, almost to Fountain Bluff. They had been walking for nearly twenty-four hours straight, and everyone (except for Cameron) looked like they were going to die any second. Sans' feet stung from constant movement and pressure and his legs felt like they were going to give out every step he took.

"please tell me we're here after this hill."

Sans looked up and saw Cameron paused, looking over whatever was after the hill.

"hey cameron, what is it?"

Amber was the first to join Cameron at the top of the hill.

"You know, I never got to see your house. Neither has Faith."

"I suppose that's a good thing," Cameron laughed nervously. Faith crawled her way to the top of the hill and gaped at the sight, annoying Sans, who was not yet there.

"Pretty good view," she coughed, still out of breath from the walk.

"i…want…to…see…" Sans collapsed on the top of the hill, Amber laughing.

"Sans, you won't see it if you don't look up."

"c'mon, it's not like there's woaaaaah."

Sans forced himself to stand up next to Papyrus to overlook the sight.

"cameron, uh…this doesn't look like a mystery dungeon."

"Sans, that's because this isn't a mystery dungeon. It's Lapras Port, the town I'm from."

The bustling town was full of houses ranging from small huts to huge shops, even a giant castle that could be reached across a river. Various wood docks were stretching out into the sea and river, little specks carrying goods to giant sea turtle looking things.

"those must be lapras then, huh?"

"Yep. Our town lives on the shipping industry, buying and selling supplies to other towns."

Amber poked Sans.

"The sea you see here is the same one the Exploration Union overlooks, just much more north."

"wow…but why didn't we just follow the coastline?"

"Most of the coastline between this continent and the Dark Sea consists of craggy and sharp rock structures that are difficult to navigate, not to mention are chockfull of unexplored mystery dungeons and powerful Pokémon. Lapras Port is located in an opening in the jagged coastline." Faith's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Yet…it's far too dangerous for us. Even Team Inferno and Team Forest are known to have experienced difficulty in coastline mystery dungeons."

"well…that's unfortunate i suppose." Sans shrugged.

Amber suddenly started jumping.

"Cameron, tell me we're going to stay at your house!"

Cameron sighed and faceflippered himself.

"I…guess we can see if my parents are home."

"Yaaaaay!" Amber did a frontflip with a huge smile on her face. Sans smiled to see her happy; she really had rebounded from that emotional breakdown.

"I want you guys to meet a friend of mine first. Come on, let's slide down this hill." Cameron jumped and landed on his belly, sliding down the steep hillside. "WOOOOO HOOOO! Come on guys join in!"

"I'm up for this!" Amber dove down and joined Cameron in the sliding. Faith sighed then finally jumped in to join them, the three whooping and cheering as they flew down the hill.

"paps, let's do it." Sans grabbed a giant leaf from a nearby tree and jumped on it to use as a sled, and grabbed his bone to control his slide. The instant he jumped off he noticed the numerous jutting rocks and slanted trees that could block his descent. He glimpsed the other three in the corner of his eye easily dodging the obstacles, likely having done this hundreds of times before. Looks like Sans' decision to use a leaf and his bone would be good.

"be careful paps! lots of obstacles!" Sans shouted up the hill to his brother.

Now, the hard part.

Sans pressed his bone to the right of the leaf to steer himself left, dodging a rock. He ducked to dodge a giant branch, then found himself directly in front of a giant rock ramp.

"aw crap." He flew up into the air, clutching onto the leaf for dear life, when he realized this was supposed to be fun. He had psychic powers; if was going to fall and get hurt he could just stop himself. So why not enjoy himself?

Sans grabbed the leaf and did several backflips in the air, screaming with joy the entire way.

"Yeah Sans, that's how you do it!" shouted Amber from the hill.

Sans touched down riding the leaf like a surfboard, riding the grassy waves of the hill, dodging obstacles and doing cool tricks the entire way down. He heard Papyrus' gleeful cheers from behind him, so he knew he must have been enjoying himself as well.

When he reached the bottom of the hill, Sans did a couple leaf donuts before slowing to a halt.

Amber trotted towards him.

"Sans that was freaking awesome! I haven't seen anyone try to do that before!" She smiled and looked away.

"Well, I have but…it didn't end so well."

"NYEEEEEH!" Papyrus flew by the two, posing dramatically as he slowed down.

"I, THE GRRRREAT PAPYRUS, AM A MASTER OF LEAF SURFING!"

"You got that right Papyrus," laughed Faith. "Anyhow, Cameron, who's that friend you want us to meet?"

"Follow me into town. Hopefully she's here."

Cameron led his friends towards the town gates, where a couple of Sawks were acting as guards. They initially became defensive, but instantly calmed down when they saw Cameron, letting them in without resistance. It made Sans a bit curious, but nothing too crazy.

As they walked through town, they saw Pokémon of various shapes and sizes walking around doing their normal business, passing by shops, houses, and storage facilities. However, every time they came near someone, they became quiet and started whispering to whoever was closest to them. Sans wondered why that could possibly be. Cameron seemed to be relatively neutral about returning home, but he walked around the town knowing where everything was and who most Pokémon were, despite being gone for a decent length of time.

Cameron turned left towards a dock, where a Lapras was talking to a Pelipper, who was carrying a sack of mail in it's talons.

"Oh, great timing," said Cameron, "now you can meet two of my friends in this town."

Cameron started running up towards the dock, attracting the attention of both Pokémon, who both smiled. The other four trailed cautiously, making sure not to attract too much attention.

"Lapras! Pelipper! It's been awhile since I've seen you guys!"

"Hee hee, I didn't think you'd be back from the Exploration Union so soon, especially being at a branch so far from here," laughed Lapras. "What brings you back home?"

"We were given an assignment at Fountain Bluff, so we decided to stop by."

Pelipper's smile turned into a frown momentarily.

"Cameron, are you sure that's a good idea, considering that…you know…"

"We can stay at the nearby Exploration Union branch's headquarters if we need to," explained Cameron. "They're in this town anyways."

Amber ran up to Cameron along with the other three.

"Geez Cameron, don't leave us behind…" Amber took several deep breaths before recollecting herself.

"Oh yeah, guys, this is Lapras and Pelipper. I've known them as long as I could remember."

"Nice to meet you!" exclaimed Amber. "We're Cameron's friends."

Lapras turned to Cameron.

"I know about Amber and Faith, but who are those two?"

"Oh, they're Sans and Papyrus, they're new around here. They joined our exploration team after we rescued them at Leaky Caverns."

"Well, it's great to see you're making new friends Cameron," chirped Pelipper. "I've got some mail to deliver, but we can catch up later. Bye!" Pelipper took to the sky carrying his bag of mail and flew off.

"Hey Lapras," began Cameron, "are you free today?"

"Most of my shipments have been delivered already, so yeah. What do you need?"

"Mind taking me to the Quartermaster's Castle? I need to let him know about our little mission."

Lapras suddenly jolted at the request.

"A-Are you sure Cameron?"

Cameron nodded.

"Yeah, I can't just barge in and stay without letting the Quartermaster know."

"whos the quartermaster?" asked Sans, inquisitively. Lapras pointed a flipper at the giant castle across the river.

"The Quartermaster keeps track of all the money and stock that comes through Lapras Port," she explained. "Everything we do runs through him, he manages pay, you know, that stuff."

"Isn't that like a dictatorship?" asked Amber, tilting her head.

"In the wrong hands, yes," explained Lapras. She glanced quickly towards Cameron before turning back to Sans. "Fortunately, the Quartermaster is a nice man. He's very fair with pay and nobody's really against him. The town has really exploded with him at the helm."

"Well, I'd be delighted to meet this Quartermaster!" exclaimed Amber.

"Well, I'm glad that you are!" replied Lapras. "I can take you there via the scenic route. The view of the sea is very nice at this time of year."

"I like the summertime views better personally," remarked Cameron. "But I must admit the spring view is pretty nice."

"Well, Cameron you do know it's almost the end of spring, right?" said Lapras.

"Time really flies, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it's like you left just yesterday," joked Lapras. "Come on, hop on my back. I can give you a ride."

"are you sure about that?"

"I've carried weight ten times heavier than all of you combined. This will be easy."

"ok then."

Team Green hopped onto Lapras' back, Cameron near the front, followed by Faith and Papyrus, then Amber and Sans at the rear. Sans noticed Lapras and Cameron were having some sort of silent conversation with each other, but he left it alone. Wasn't his business to deal with it.

"Woah Sans, look at that sunset!" Amber poked Sans, who turned left to see. The shiny reds, oranges, and purples reflected off the seawater, the light sparkling off the crests and dips in the waves. The beach Krabbys blew bubbles into the air, light shining and refracting through the water spheres. Water droplets from Lapras' wake shot into the sky, making the whole scene seem like a misty mirage.

"I've heard about this happening at another place in the world, but I didn't know this kind of event occurred here!" exclaimed Amber, her eyes sparkling like the sunset.

"It's great living on the western coast. You're always surrounded by water and there's always a great view of the sunset," said Lapras. "Nothing will ever cease to amaze you."

"wow…this is…something you live for."

Sans continued to stare at the beautiful sunset, trying to ingrain the memory into his brain forever, when he felt some pressure on his right shoulder. Amber had seemed to fallen asleep next to him and rested her head on him. It felt a bit awkward for Sans, but he also felt at peace. Something told him that this is the way things were supposed to be; no fighting, no Amalgamates, pure peace, and…no Sans.

Staring at the sunset ran some interesting questions through Sans' head. If he and Papyrus truly were the Pokémon stated in the Prophecy…and if so, when the Prophecy is completed…what then? It mentioned the world being restored to it's youth. In Sans' mind that meant reverting to a previous state of balance. Does that mean…if the world is saved…he and Papyrus must go? If what Alakazam said was true, the two brothers would not be from this world, so maybe they would go back to wherever they were before when the Prophecy is completed.

He looked to his right at Amber. It would likely crush her, and the other two as well. Despite being completely new and helpless, they took him and his brother in and became friends. It was a bit unfamiliar to Sans for some reason, but he liked it. He wished peace in this world would be permanent and he could stay to experience it. He didn't want to go.

But destiny may have decreed otherwise, and there was nothing to do to change that. He felt helpless, but at least there was likely a lot of time in between then and now.

Sans was jolted from his pensive state when Lapras suddenly turned right into an inlet.

"We're almost there!" she exclaimed. Amber awoke next to Sans and suddenly jumped up.

"UWA! I missed the sunset! Awwwww." She turned to Sans.

"How was it?!"

"it was pretty cool."

"Daaaarn it!"

Darkness was beginning to set in on the quaint little shipping town as Lapras turned to make her way towards the castle. She soon stopped at a dock connected to the castle's entrance via dirt path.

"Here you go guys, the Quartermaster's castle is up there!" Lapras whispered something to Cameron before leaving. "I can give you all a ride to Fountain Bluff tomorrow morning if you wish."

"That would be great Lapras! Thank you!" Cameron waved goodbye as Lapras left to go home. He turned to the rest of the group. "The castle is just up here. Let's go!"

"Um…Cameron…are you _sure_ the Quartermaster would be okay with you knocking on his door at this time?" asked Amber. "It's kinda late…"

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll answer…I think."

"Wow, that's great," mocked Amber.

"Haha, nice impression of me. How flattering."

"You're welcome."

The group started hiking up the hill, sending Sans back into his pensive state.

Sans knew none of what he thought of was permanent, or set in stone, or even what would truly happen, but thinking of the possibilities allowed him to calm himself a bit. If his memories returned, then maybe it could help him, but he didn't really get anywhere in that aspect. For now, he might as well enjoy himself while he could.

Finally, the group stepped through the outer wall doors and walked up to a mansion located within. The wooden door had a knocker in the center. The lights were on inside; someone was home.

"Cameron, you sure about this?" asked Faith.

"Um…now that you think about it and now that I'm here…not really."

Sans noticed that Cameron was now shivering violently, extremely nervous for what seemed to be no apparent reason.

"uh…you okay buddy?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm good…"

"You don't look so good Cameron," piped Amber.

"I-I can do this…yeah I g-got this…" Cameron slowly shambled towards a door knocker and hit it.

"Oh god…oh god…"

Sans heard footsteps from behind the door, likely someone coming to open the entrance.

"Oh guys…one more thing you should know…"

He heard the keys rattling to undo the lock.

"What is it?" asked Faith.

The wooden door swung open, revealing two tall penguins, shocking literally everyone.

"CAMERON?!" shouted one of the penguins. "Why are you home?"

"Yeah uh…" stuttered Cameron, "the Quartermaster is my dad."

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	11. A Family Dispute

**A/N: Hey guys, it's Blox! Sorry for the long wait between chapters, I got caught up with other stuff and started Splintered Bonds. I'll be trying to write as much as I can, but I'm not sure how consistent it will be. :(**

 **Anyways, onto the story!**

* * *

Sans woke up, stretched out on a nice mattress bed, the sheets covering his body. After enjoying a nice, plentiful feast with Cameron's family, he and the others went _straight_ to bed while Cameron talked with his parents. Thank god; Sans swore he slept to at least noon.

Sans jolted his head to the right as he hears someone knocking on the bedroom door. He adjusts his mask and stays silent for a couple minutes, before hearing a sigh and footsteps going away from the door.

"hey…?"

The footsteps stop and the figure quickly comes back.

"Sans, you're finally awake!" chirped Amber. "Come on, lunch is ready!"

"lunch?! what about breakfast?"

"You slept past breakfast!"

"that's a shame."

Sans rolled out of bed and onto the floor, the room resonating with a thud.

"Sans?! You okay?"

"yeah. just too lazy to walk."

"Ugh, hurry up! I'm hungry and I'm waiting for you!"

"okay geez amber, you don't need to wait for me you know."

Instead of getting up and walking to the door, Sans decided to roll his way to the door.

"okay, ready."

"Sans, did you literally roll out of bed?"

"uh…maybe?"

"Fine, whatever. Let's go."

Sans' eye glowed in the back of his head as he used his telekinesis to open the door. Amber was standing on the other side, her bag strapped over her bag.

"hey amber."

"Hurry up!"

Sans forced himself to his feet then trudged to follow her.

"ok."

"Cameron's mom made lunch Sans!"

"wow."

"…You don't seem the same Sans. You okay?"

Amber turned back to Sans gave him a worried look. He didn't really want to disappoint her, but he had been thinking about the sunset thoughts the entire night, and got very little sleep, although that seemed like something he was used to…

"yeah, i'm good."

"Not a good night?"

"ugh, you got me."

"Hee hee!"

The pair walked downstairs to the kitchen, where Faith, Papyrus, Cameron, and Cameron's parents were already waiting.

"Oh my god! Sandwiches!" Amber sprinted to the table and jumped onto a seat.

"Can I eat one?"

"Not yet Amber," replied Cameron's mom, "we should wait for Sans."

Sans wasn't exactly in the speediest mood.

"NYEH HEH HEH! SANS, I'M HUNGRY! HURRY UP SO WE CAN START!"

"just…gimme a sec."

Sans faceplanted at the bottom of the stairs and tried to fall back asleep, but both Amber and Papyrus grabbed his hood and dragged him to the table.

"darn."

"Okay, _now_ can I eat?"

"Sure."

"LET'S DIG IN!" shouted all of Team Green as they voraciously chomped down the sandwiches.

"So…" began Cameron's dad as he took a bite out of a fish sandwich. "Where are you kids off to today?"

"We're going to e-." began Faith. Sans looked over to see her catching Cameron's sideways glance, then proceeding to stop in the middle of her sentence.

"We're just visiting the area. We're on a basic retrieval assignment from up top." Faith took a bite out of her sandwich.

"Anywhays, whee jrust wanted to lorrk around."

"Faith, please talk without food in your mouth," groaned Cameron, who nibbled at the bread crust.

Cameron's dad suddenly cleared his throat and stood up.

"I know you didn't quit Cameron…but we still had a deal. And as a result…you'll have to go through with what we agreed with."

Cameron, in a sudden burst of anger, jolted upwards and slammed the table.

"The DEAL? I never broke any sort of deal!"

"You came home, even though we told you that you couldn't return home if you joined, _especially_ if you quit."

"But DAD, I didn't quit!"

"Young man, you better keep your mouth shut. The only reason I took you in last night is because I couldn't turn down your friends. If it was just _you_ , however, I wouldn't have been so merciful."

Sans' gaze drifted between the father and son. Tensions were high in the room; nobody else dared to speak or even move an inch.

"Dad, this has been one of my dreams for my entire life!"

"And I told you that-."

"No. Enough." Cameron turned away, tears welling up in his eyes. "I'm old enough to choose my fate."

"As long as you are in this house, you abide by _my_ rules Cameron, not yours. Do you understand?"

Nobody spoke, until Cameron finally gave in and slumped down, looking at his feet.

"Yes Dad."

"Good. Now go."

Cameron slid off of his chair and slowly made his way towards the stairs, not looking up the entire time. Faith and Amber looked at each other for a moment before they both nodded and ran to go after him.

"No, he has to do this alone." Cameron's dad stood up and looked at the two girls, who were about to scurry after him.

"You aren't…grounding him, are you?" asked Amber, half-scared.

"No, of course not." Cameron's dad shook his head and chuckled. "You guys should go down to the city anyways. I'm sure you have preparations to do."

Sans froze mid-bite in his sandwich and looked around the table. The only one who wasn't disrupted was Papyrus.

"Hm? Oh, I guess you're right." Faith turned Amber around by the shoulder and they both walked towards Sans and Papyrus.

"Guys, let's go down to the pier. We should restock on items before we…get the item and return back to home base."

Sans looked at her confused before realizing that Cameron's dad didn't know that they were actually here on a rescue assignment. He grabbed his brother by the scarf and pulled him down to the floor.

"NYEH?!"

"come on bro…we have somewhere to go."

"OK SANS…"

The group, minus Cameron, navigated their way back to the front door and exited into the sounds of the river gushing below. Sans could see the town bustling with activity, Pokémon going about doing their daily work.

The entire descent from Empoleon Castle was silent until they saw Lapras waiting for them by the dock.

"lapras…how did you know that we needed a ride?"

Lapras shrugged. "I had a hunch. Where's Cameron?"

"His dad's making him…do something upstairs," chirped Amber. "Don't really know what it is." Amber hopped onto Lapras' shell, gesturing for Sans to join her. Sans swore Lapras' expression showed a sign of shock and worry, but it was gone as fast as it came.

"Well…are you coming or not?!"

"um, yeah." Sans clambered slowly onto Lapras and sat next to Amber, who shuffled nervously in the water. Papyrus and Faith climbed on towards the front of the shell as Lapras began swimming away from the castle, not speaking a single word.

Amber leaned towards Sans and went up close to his ear.

"Ya know," she whispered, "I'm a bit worried about Cameron. It seems like his parents are pretty strict and they're making him do something he's dreading."

"i can't really tell you i've had any first-hand experience with that."

Sans sat up and laid down, letting the midday sun warm his body and relax his muscles.

"do either of you have parents like that?"

Amber looked into the distance, while Faith turned to face Sans.

"Not really, my parents were always quite supportive." She gave Sans a smile and turned back to talk to Papyrus.

"whaddabout you amber?"

Amber sighed and turned to Sans.

"Well…you see…u-uh…" Amber struggled to speak, stammering every word as if they pained her to say.

"hey, if you aren't comfortable speaking about it, it's okay." Sans shrugged.

"i mean, i don't have any parents. it's just me and paps, two bros."

"NYEH HEH HEH! THAT'S RIGHT! UH…WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR PARENTS?"

Sans darted his eyes around as he thought of a quick explanation.

"ya know, mom died, that's where…i got this." He nudged his skull mask. "dad…dunno where he went. right paps?"

"YEH!"

Amber gave him a sweet smile before turning away again. Her red fur and tail rippled as the ocean breeze rushed by.

"Must have been tough…huh?" Her voice carried a much calmer tone, something Sans wasn't used to. Amber was normally pretty aggressive and direct, so hearing this threw him a curveball.

"eh…sometimes, but paps and i can get by on our own."

Faith shruggled and laughed.

"Don't know about that Sans," she remarked, "you two were knocked out in that cave."

"hey, that doesn't count!"

"Just keep telling that to yourself. Maybe my friend Lyra could help you with that; she's pretty self-sufficient."

All four of them laughed and let off some steam, Lapras even joining in on some of the fun. After it was done, Sans sat back up and saw that they were almost back to the city, eyeing the port they left from yesterday. He turned to look at Amber, but that moment of vulnerability, similar to what he saw the other day, was already gone, replaced with her normal curious, reckless abandon.

"EEEEEE! I wonder what we'll find here!" She jumped up and down in glee as she hopped off the boat onto the dock.

"Relax Amber, we have a set list of things to find," said Faith. "We should also check-in with the local Union branch to make sure things back at home are up to date."

"Ugh, fiiiiiine, but don't expect me to wait! Cameron told me all about the things the shops here have to offer with access to the port! I heard they have some items from completely different _continents_!"

Faith sighed and turned to Sans, looking at him with desperation.

"Watch her, will ya? Papyrus and I will go shopping at the local Kecleon's. You make sure she doesn't get into trouble."

"sure, whatever."

Faith grabbed a few dozen gold coins from the adventure bag, put them in a smaller pouch, and tossed it to Sans.

"I hope that isn't all gone when we're done."

Faith grabbed Papyrus' hand and dragged him off towards who-knows-where, while Faith was left jumping in place, her bag jolting up and down with her."

"Saaaans, you aren't going to be a party pooper too, right?"

Sans looked at Amber as she ran around, full to the brim with excitement.

"no…just don't go too crazy."

As soon as he spoke, Amber had already dashed away, running into the criss-crossing roads of Lapras Port. He ran in to try and find her, but by the time he'd reached the first crossing, she was nowhere to be seen. Other Pokémon were walking around, making it hard for Sans to see her.

"ugh…i need a better vantage point." He darted his eyes around, spotting a taller structure in the middle of town.

"bingo." Sans closed his eyes and focused his energy into teleporting, then warped himself to the roof of the building. He looked around the streets, but he didn't see Amber anywhere.

Suddenly, a dash of orange, red, and yellow flew across his vision. He quickly teleported to where the blur was heading, and sure enough, he saw Amber flying down the street, running past multiple surprised Pokémon.

"Coming throooough! Sorrrrry!"

Sans stepped in front of her and looked her directly in the eye as she ran directly at him.

"amber, stop! you're gonna bulldoze someone!"

"Erk! Sans, I can't stop running!" She continued to run at him at lightning speed. "WATCH OUT!"

Amber crashed into Sans, sending them tumbling down the road.

"Urk!"  
"Hff…"

They slowly rolled to a stop, just before sliding off one of the piers. Sans slowly stood up while grabbing his back, dusting his hoodie off with his free hand in the process.

"ow…try not to do that again." Sans looked over the sparkling ocean water as he awaited Amber's response.

"…amber?"

Still no response.

"…you okay-."

He turned to find her, but as soon as he looked she tackled him back to the ground with a resounding thud, scaring the crap out of him.

"oh…my…god…you've got to be kidding me."

"Haha! Gotchu!" She danced around above him. "C'mon lazypants! There's one place I _know_ I want to check out here!"

Amber bit Sans' hoodie and began dragging him down the road, his feet bumping as she ran along.

"could-you-please-stop-."

"No!"

"come on!"

Amber suddenly dropped Sans' hoodie, dropping his head to the ground. He winced through the pain and stood up to look at the sign of a store they had stopped at.

"carbink…stone shop?"

Amber jumped up and down faster than Sans had ever seen in his life.

"Yeaaaaah! They sell these really cool and rare stones that can do some pretty amazing things!"

She turned to a silent Sans.

"Aren't you coming in?!"

"yea…just don't buy anything. this stuff looks expensive."

"Don't worry you big baby, we'll be in and out."

Sans followed Amber into the shop, passing through a red curtain that served as the door. Inside, the shop was dark, but Sans could see the outlines of luminescent crystals lining all the walls, as well as several glowing stones being displayed throughout the store.

"damn…"

"EEEEE! I know right, so COOOL!" She dashed to and fro, pointing out many different stones to Sans.

"This here is a Thunder Stone and…this here is a Leaf Stone and…wow! I haven't seen a real Mega Stone in my life!"

Sans peered in to look at the Mega Stone; it shimmered with multiple colors, but it seemed like something he had seen before…

"wait a second…"

A lightbulb went off in Sans head. Alakazam had one of these Mega Stones on his wrist!

"i've seen this before!"

Amber looked at him, both curiously and with excitement.

"Really!? When?!"

"alakazam had one of these on his wrist."

"Hm, that's odd…these things are _very_ rare, and from what I've heard, they're just collector's items. They don't really _do_ anything as far as I'm aware."

"why's that?"

"Dunno, maybe something's missing."

"hm."

They continued to examine the store's contents until Amber suddenly froze in front of another stone.

"Woooaaaah…Fire Stone! So waaarm!" She nuzzled the rock and turned to Sans.

"don't you dare say-."

"I WANT IT!"

Sans heard a thud and muttering somewhere in the back of the store, and turned to see a floating rock and crystalline Pokémon making it's way around the exhibits.

"hey, are you the owner of this place?"

The Pokémon nodded.

"Yeah, I'm Carbink. I've collected these rare stones from travelers across the world. Why do you ask?"

"um…she wants that."

Sans pointed at the glowing Fire Stone and a jumping Amber.

"The Fire Stone? That costs 2000 Poké."

"two-thousand? that's expensive!"

"And that stone is rare." Carbink gestured once again to the glowing stone.

"C'mon Sans, pleeeaaaaaase?"

Amber looked at him with baby-doll eyes, trying to guilt him into paying for the stone.

"amber, it's expensive."

"Pleaaaaaaasseeeeeeee?!"

His eyes darted between Carbink, Amber, and the glowing stone as he contemplated his options. Unfortunately, there was only one. He took out the pouch and counted out the golden coins, which added up to two-thousand perfectly. He dropped the pouch on top of Carbink.

"here ya go, two-thousand even."

"The stone is yours, kid."

Amber giddly grabbed the stone off of the pedestal and stuffed it into her bag.

"Thaaaanks Sans! You're the best!" She gave him a quick hug then sprinted back out of the store. He gave a soft chuckle before Carbink interrupted him, struggling to balance the pouch on it's head.

"Any…help?"

Sans grabbed the pouch and placed it on the counter, where Carbink tipped it over to put into a register.

"Is that your girlfriend?"

Sans stepped back in shock.

"no…what makes you think that?"

"Nothin', just curious."

Sans walked out of the store and found Amber waiting for him outside.

"Do you think Faith and Papyrus are done?"

Sans looked behind Amber and saw a glimpse of a couple of familiar faces.

"speak of the devil…"

Faith and Papyrus walked up to Sans and Amber.

"NYEH HEH HEH! WE'RE FINISHED!"

"i assumed so. did'ja get everything you needed?"

"Yup," said Faith, holding up a slightly fuller Treasure bag. "I talked to the local Unionmaster and said that they didn't get any reports from our branch, so we're clear to proceed with our assignment once Cameron's done with…whatever he's doing."

Sans froze for a moment, remembering that Noctowl had given him his own assignment while on this journey. It seemed it was coming close, and faster than he had expected.

"yeah, we should probably get back," Sans chuckled, "cam's probably done."

"I hope so," replied Faith. "Sometimes he can be a little…slow."

"ha, slow? if you think cameron's slow, then you've seen nothing yet."

"Heh, I'll take my chances."

The group reboarded Lapras and traveled back to the castle, the sun beginning to make it's descent as the afternoon slowly turned into evening. As they deboarded, Lapras nudged Sans in the back, causing him to turn around.

"huh?"

"I hope that…Cameron's not doing what I _think_ he's doing."

"doing sudoku?"

"No…why that?"

"eh, just a funny joke."

Lapras rolled her eyes.

"Just…be careful, okay? It sounds like he really pulled the last straw with his dad."

"i'll keep you updated."

Sans hurried up the hill to catch up with the rest of the group, who had already re-entered the residence. Faith was already talking to Cameron's dad, her voice filled with worry.

"He isn't done yet, is he?"

"Nope, Cameron is still upstairs and hasn't come down since you last saw him."

"Ugh…we'll go check on him."

Cameron's dad paced in his place.

"…Very well."

"Thank you sir!"

The four ran upstairs, past their rooms, and towards an open door across from Cameron's room.

"Uh guys," muttered Amber, "I don't think that door was _open_ before…" She turned to Faith.

"You don't think that's-."

"It is." She began to lead the group towards the open door, listening carefully for any signs. Faith suddenly brought her hand up, and the group stood still.

"please don't tell me it's an amalgamate…"

"Nah, it's not." She waved her hand and the group continued. "But it might be worse."

"aw, dammit."

On Faith's signal, the group jumped into the room at the same time, and saw Cameron sleeping in the middle of the floor. The room was a bedroom, one that hadn't seen any use in at least a couple years, the blue walls faded and the pictures and furniture covered in dust. The only unusual thing present in the room was a surprised Flareon sitting on the bed.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	12. We Aren't Alone

**Hey guys, long time no see! I just wanted to let you all know that I may be returning to a more steady writing schedule soon, with free time finally starting to open up for me.**

 **I also wanted to tell all of you that this story may start to become a little…confusing, I guess. So far, it's been a relatively Sans-centric story, most of the plot focusing on Sans' journey through the PMD universe, but it will start branching off from there.**

 **Now, enjoy the story!**

* * *

 _ **[Sans]**_

Sans and the Flareon stared at each other for at least ten solid seconds before either one of them spoke.

"um…hi," said Sans, trying to break the silence.

"Hey, don't sit there and act so stupid!" shouted the Flareon. It got up and paced around the bed a bit before sitting back down. It had a small red ribbon on it's head.

"sorry? i guess?" Sans shrugged and gestured to Cameron.

"did you do this?"

"Yeah, what do you think? He walked in on my beauty sleep!"

"so you knocked him out?"

"Yes."

"Geez, someone's aggressive," whispered Amber. The Flareon caught Amber's quip and growled.

"Hey, you're the one to talk!"

Amber snarled in return and stared down the Flareon.

"How about you shut your mouth?!"

"Come at me! I'm not afraid of you!"

"GRRRR-." Amber tried to lunge at the Flareon, but Faith and Papyrus held her back with all their strength.

"C'mon Amber, don't make this worse!" shouted Faith, pushing against her.

"NYEEEEEH!"

Sans turned to the Flareon, who was still eyeing Amber.

"and…why are you here? who are you? _how_ did you get here?"

The Flareon rolled its eyes and sighed.

"So needy…well, my name is-."

Sans heard footsteps growing closer to the room, turning to face the door in the process. By the time he turned back, the Flareon was at the window, looking outside.

"you aren't going to-."

"No, of course not, stupid! I'm just getting out before they know I'm here!" The Flareon turned around and winked at Sans.

"See ya later. Maybe." The Flareon did a backflip out the window, Sans running immediately to where she was standing. Peeking out the window he could see the pink blur running on the treetops, until she was out of sight of Sans.

"jesus, that was…weird."

"You call that _weird?_ " laughed Amber. "Have you been living under a rock this _entire time_?"

"you'd be surprised."

"Hey Sans…look at this."

Sans turned and saw Faith kneeling to pick up a red object from the ground; the ribbon from the Flareon.

"it must have fallen off when she escaped."

"Here, you hold onto it."

Faith held the red ribbon in her hand, outstretched for Sans to take. As he pocketed the ribbon in his right hoodie pocket, he felt a cold, metallic object touch the back of his fingers. That was odd; he didn't remember putting something like that into his pocket.

"eh?"

Amber turned her head and gave Sans a confused look.

"Something…wrong?"

Sans wrapped his fingers around the object, feeling it's size and shape.

"HEY! Earth to SANS!" Faith was waving her hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention. He must have spaced out.

"oh, sorry…just got a lot on my mind, that's all."

He reluctantly pulled the object out of his pocket.

"what in the…" Clutched in his right hand was a fragment of what seemed to be a golden medallion, only a small part remaining. It was attached to a dark blue ribbon, which was the same color as his hoodie jacket. As he turned the gold-plated piece in his hands, he could see the edges of some sort of design imprinted onto the medallion. Without the full disc, there was no way he would be able to know exactly what the design was.

"finally, something helpful.." he muttered under his breath.

"Huh? What was that?" asked Amber, overhearing his soft chatter.

"eh?! oh…it was nothing." Sans cursed under his breath; he accidentally said that out loud. Luckily, nobody actually heard him.

Sans continued to dig in his pockets as the others talked and waited for Cameron to wake up. It didn't seem like the rest of the medallion was in his pockets; dammit.

He held the broken medallion in front of himself then slowly slipped the ribbon over his neck-.

" _ey, alphys, what did you make this time?"_

Sans darted his head around in a panic. That was his voice but…he didn't say anything. And neither did anyone others looked at Sans like had gone insane and returned to their personal conversations.

" _Sans, this is a v-v-very important piece of t-technology,"_ replied Alphys' voice. He thought about who Alphys was, but every time he tried his head began to throb.

He heard the rustling and exchanging of some sort of item; likely whatever the other person was working on.

" _it just looks like a regular 'ol disc to me."_

" _C'mon S-Sans, you know that i-if-"_

" _yea, i know alphys, i was just messin' with you."_

There was a pause of silence in the conversation. Sans carefully looked around his surroundings; he was still conscious. In the past, his "memory flashes" knocked him out, so there must be some outside cause for this.

What was he planning?

" _what does this thing do again?"_

" _Well, Sans, it's supposed to…"_

The next few seconds were jumbled and gargled to the point he could no longer tell what words were being said.

"… _It should be useful…a-as long as i-it's whole."_

" _and…will paps have one?"_

" _This is the o-only one I have Sans…I'm w-working on another b-but-"_

" _just get it done. time is of the essence."_

" _O-Okay, Sans…"_

Sans waited for more of the conversation, but it seemed like whatever memory that was, was finished. His mind drifted towards thoughts about the kid-.

"oh my god." A few of his memories, or at least fragments of more of his memories, had been restored by the broken medallion.

"Sans?" he turned to see Amber looking at him worriedly. "Something wrong?"

"don't worry 'bout me, i'm fine."

That was a total lie. Sans was panicking inside, trying to take in the influx of memories of his past. Unfortunately, they weren't much help in solving his current problems, but at least they were _something_. He remembered his friends, but not what they looked like, where they were from, or exactly how long ago the memories were. Only the conversation he had just re-experienced in his head seemed to offer any clues.

Sans saw movement in the corner of his eye, and spotted Papyrus leaning against the wall, looking at Sans quizzically.

"bro, you all good?"

"NYEH HEH HEH! OF COURSE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS GREAT!" Papyrus gave Sans a dramatic pose, making Sans laugh. That was his bro.

"Ugh…what happened?" Everyone turned to see Cameron stirring on the floor, rubbing his head.

"You got knocked out by a girl," laughed Faith, prompting Cameron to knock her feet out from under her.

"Besides that…" He sat up and crossed his arms, obviously upset. His expression changed when he saw the broken medallion around Sans' neck. "Where'd ya get that?"

"i…don't know actually. it was just there."

"Huh…I don't buy that." Cameron stood up and began to walk aggressively towards Sans.

"i'm telling the truth, bro, what else do you want from me?"

Sans continued to back up as Cameron advanced on him, forcing Sans against the wall.

"Hey Cam, what are you doing?!" shouted Faith, trying to pull him back. Unfortunately, her efforts did nothing.

"I've been watching you, Sans, and you've always been a bit iffy since day one." He poked Sans in the chest as Sans stared into Cameron's eyes, face to face with him. Sans furrowed his brow curiously, noticing a glint in Cameron's eyes he never saw before.

"hey man, i don't know what happened to you while we were gone, but you just need to relax."

Almost as fast as he noticed it, the glint was gone. Cameron blinked his eyes a couple times and looked around.

"S-Sorry Sans…I don't know what got into me." He stepped back a couple feet and frowned. "I think being in my brother's old room is starting to get to me."

Sans gritted his teeth silently as he looked at Cameron, who had just seemed to go from absolutely furious to apologetic in an instant. That look in his eyes didn't seem natural, but then again Cameron wasn't typically angry, so Sans tossed it aside.

"Sans, you okay?" Amber trotted over to him and looked between Sans and Cameron nervously.

"yeah…i'm fine." His eyes quickly darted to the broken medallion, which seemed harmless enough.

"We should…get going." Cameron awkwardly picked up his bag from the ground and left the room, speechless.

"i'ma follow him. we should really head out for fountain bluff tonight to maximize the time we have tomorrow."

In reality, this was only partially true; Sans just wanted to escape the tension that was lingering in the room.

"NYEH! I AGREE!" Papyrus sprinted out past Sans, to who knows where. Faith and Amber just stood where they were, seemingly unwilling to move.

"well…are you coming or not?"

"…Yeah…" they both muttered as they shambled out of the room.

Sans took one last look in the room, meticulously picking the details apart. He shrugged and muttered something under his breath, before finally closing the door.

* * *

 _ **[?'s POV]**_

Ugh…another boring day. I never thought it would be possible to go insane from doing _nothing_ , but, like always, the universe has proved me wrong once again.

I stand up from the grass bed, stretching all four of my legs and shaking my tail in the process. I can see in the corner of my eye that it's bright outside; have I slept in past dawn again?

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEY, SLEEPY HEAD! GET UP!" A girl's voice rings from outside my makeshift hut. You've got to be kidding me.

"Ugh…give me a minute." I plop back down to the ground and bring my brown and white tail back around as a pillow. It's not worth waking up yet.

"Michael, am I going to have to drag you out myself?" The girl's voice was closer this time. I murmur a complaint under my breath and bury my face in my tail.

"I'm coming in there in three seconds if you don't move!"

I do nothing.

"Three, two, one…" Her voice trails off as I remain on the ground, unmoving.

"OKAY MICHAEL! I'M GOING IN THERE!"

I hear loud footsteps entering my hut and teeth come down around my tail. I yelp a bit in both surprise and pain as I jolt my eyes open.

"Ow!"

I look up drowsily to see an Espeon dragging me out of the hut by my tail, all four of my legs dragging along the floor.

"C'mon Sarah…really?"

I slam my face into the ground for no reason.

"Yes Michael! If you're sleeping past me…it's DEFINITELY AN ISSUE!"

The bright light of _outside_ stings my eyes. I attempt to cover them with my front two paws, but it doesn't really work. I hiss.

"You aren't a vampire or a Zubat, Michael. Man up. You're the only guy here!"

How did I get myself into this mess? I wake up in a pile of leaves with zero recount of literally anything, including my name, then I end up living in a forest, isolated from civilization, with these crazy girls? I mean, I know Sarah and all since we're pretty good friends, but this is just…whack. On at least fifteen levels.

"Well…good morning Michael…or should I say AFTERNOON?!"

As Sarah drops my tail, I roll on my back, my vision blurry. As I blink, I realize someone's standing over me.

"AH! M-Monika!"

A Sylveon was staring at me from above, her expression showing her obvious disappointment at my lackluster sleep schedule.

"Uh…s-sorry." I quickly roll back onto my belly and start reverse army-crawling my way backwards, trying to cover my face with my ears. I had gotten surprisingly good at that over the last couple months.

"You aren't getting away, mister!"

Monika wrapped one of her ribbon things around my front two paws and began to reel me back in, Sarah laughing in the background.

"Just because you aren't evolved doesn't give you an excuse to slack off!"

Not even fair. I'm just an Eevee, and the others are already evolved.

"Uncalled for, Monika…"

Monika stood over me as I looked up, defeated.

"I don't want you just mooching off everyone else's work!"

Monika started to slowly approach me, a playful gleam in her eyes.

"C'mon, you're a boy. Don't you have to treat us ladies nicely?" She gave me a playful wink.

"U-Uhh…" Jesus Christ, I get flustered easily.

Before I know it, I get hit in the face by Monika. I hold my front right paw over my nose, where I got hit.

"Jeez Monika, I know I'm slacking but you don't have to whack me like that!"

"Then DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE!"

"Okay, okay! I'm going!"

I slowly limp my way out of camp, which is basically five makeshift huts arranged in a circle. It's not much, but it's home I suppose.

I decide to go to look for more firewood in the forest, when I see a black entity in front of me, staring off into space.

"Uh…Iris?"

She doesn't move. I decide to leave her alone and continue on to the forest.

When I reach the forest, I pick up bits and pieces of firewood and stack them into the bag on my back, and after about an hour of doing that I decide to head back to camp. On my way back, I keep an eye out for Iris, but she doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Probably back at the camp.

As I approach home, I can hear some loud noises coming from nearby. I unsling the pack from my back as I walk around the nearest hut and-

"MICHAEL GET DOWN!"

"Wha?-"

I'm tackled by Monika just as a dark beam narrowly misses my head. We tumble along and she ends up standing right on top of me. We're both blushing.

"What's going on?" I ask, both startled and curious.

"Can't explain. Something's wrong with Y-I mean Iris."

She quickly looks around, her ribbons flowing in the air. I carefully lift myself back onto my feet and start picking up the wood I spilled.

"You don't need to do that."

I drop the bag.

"Oh…okay."

Monika is looking at me like I'm absolutely retarded. That must mean that I am either absolutely retarded, or I have no idea what's going on. It's probably both.

"Careful," she begins, "don't make a-."

I step on a branch, the snap resonating in the forest.

"Sound." She sounds angry.

"HEHEHEEHEHEEHEHE! I FOUND YOU MONIKA!"

I jump and turn around, startled, to see Iris staring at the two of us with the biggest grin I've ever seen. I don't know if she's just being herself, or if something's gotten into her head.

"Michael, get out of the way, now!"

I dive out of the way as Iris shoots a dark pulse right at me. Monika manages to shoot some sort of laser and block Iris' attack. I'm laying down in the sidelines as I watch Monika and Iris duke it out, biting, scratching, and firing lasers at each other. I must be dreaming right now.

After what feels like an eternity, Monika manages to knock Iris down, breathing heavily as she looks at Iris' unmoving body. She's probably just unconscious.

As I get up to walk to Monika, I hear her mutter something under her breath, but she turns to look at me as soon as I stand up.

"Monika…tell me. What's going on?"

She turns away from me, tears in her eyes. She's obviously hiding something.

"I can't…tell you."

"Why not?"

"I just can't, okay?!"

"You can tell-."

"I CAN'T!"

She suddenly snaps at me, surprising me. I don't ever remember Monika being this angry since…ever.

I look at Iris.

"What's going on between you and Iris?"

Monika gives me a weak smile and laughs.

"Don't worry about me, okay? I can handle myself. You just need to get as far away from here as possible."

"What?"

Did I do something wrong?

"Trust me, okay? You have to. To stay safe."

"Um…"

I'm speechless. My brain is completely overwhelmed by the sudden change in events.

"Sarah got hit by Iris, and she's not moving. You should take her with you."

"Monika-"

"You have to find Natalie and make sure she doesn't come back. Take her with you too if you wish." Monika continues on almost as if I didn't exist.

"But…"

"No buts." Monika gives me a peck on the cheek and smiles.

"Now, do what I say. Before-"

I hear a whoosh in the trees behind me. I see that Monika had stopped talking; she must have heard it as well.

"Uh oh…" Her expression suddenly darkens, and she begins to back up from the tree line.

"Monika?" I look at her. She glares back, angry.

"I told you to-"

Suddenly, a giant dark mass snatches Monika from the ground, and pins her against a tree. To me, it just looked like a giant blob incapable of having a solid form, let alone a grip on Monika, but whatever.

"Ack…" Monika is struggling to free herself from the grip of the dark…thing. She looks at me from behind the dark creature and smiles.

"Now's…your…chance…" She passes out and goes limp up against the tree. Of course, I, being an idiot, did absolutely nothing.

"Erm…"

The dark creature turned what I think is it's head and snarled at me.

"I'ma just…go."

"GRAAAAAR!"

I turn and sprint away from the dark creature, narrowly dodging its outstretching hand. I manage to snag my bag on the way out, thanks to practice running from an angry Monika.

As I pass into the middle of camp, I spot Sarah lying on the ground, unconscious. I begin to drag her out of camp as I hear the dark creature grumble in the background, giving up it's chase.

"Gaah…haaaah…"

She's surprisingly heavy. I accidentally trip and fall into a bush, where I see an unusual-looking rock sitting in the bush. I can feel cold air coming from the stone.

"Heeeeeeey…Michaaaaael!" I can hear Monika calling from behind me, but…

I turn around and see both Iris and Monika looking at me, both having that weird glint in their eyes.

"Oh crap."

I grab the nearest thing to me, which happened to be that rock.

"UHHHHHHHHHH-"

I feel energy coursing through me; is this evolution? Who just leaves an evolution stone sitting in a bush?

Bright light fills my eyes, and when I'm able to see again, I look at myself.

"I'm…a Glaceon…"

Yeah, I'm a Glaceon now. _Great_ time to evolve when I'll probably have no time to enjoy being an evolved piece of crap with my friends.

I look nervously between Sarah, Iris, and Monika.

"Can we just talk-"

Monika suddenly fires a moon laser straight at me, and I'm able to dodge it with newfound speed.

"I'll take that as a no."

I prepare to try and fight back, and to my surprise, I fire a beam of ice straight at Monika and Iris, creating a huge wall out of ice. I stare at it in awe.

"Wait…I'm supposed to be getting out of here."

I grab Sarah and I'm able to sling her on top of my back, despite us basically being the same size. I start running in the opposite direction, trying to get as far as I can before they start chasing me. I have to warn Natalie, too.

"God…"

 _I hope you're okay, Sarah. We'll get through this. I know it._

* * *

 **Who is this…Michael? What are these new characters?! wHo Is MoNikA-**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	13. Crossing Paths

_**[Sans]**_

It was well past nightfall when Sans and the rest of Team Green had begun their walk towards Fountain Bluff. According to Cameron, it should take around four to five hours to reach it by foot at their current rate, which should give them at least a few hours of sleep before daybreak, where they would enter the Mystery Dungeon in search for the missing ambassador Sylveon.

At least, that's what the others' mission was. Noctowl's mysterious request had been replaying in his head the entire walk, and having a heavy pack on his back wasn't helping. How would he be able to do his job while not looking suspicious? He wasn't sure.

Sans fiddled with the golden medallion piece as he walked down the dirt path, Amber's small puffs of fire offering the only source of light in the open country they found themselves in. As he held it in his hands, Sans thought about the past. He still hadn't told the others about the medallion and memory surge; it probably wasn't something they'd want to be dragged into, anyways. They had their own problems.

"SANS? ARE YOU SLEEPWALKING AGAIN?!"

Sans looked up and saw Papyrus waving his hand in front of Sans' eyes. He had come back from the front to see if Sans was awake.

"oh…hey paps. just thinkin', that's all."

"SANS, I HAD TO PICK YOU UP TO MAKE SURE YOU DIDN'T HIT A TREE."

"really?"

"YES, BROTHER!"

Sans rolled his eyes and smiled. He must have been in a real deep daze, because even he would know if he had suddenly gotten picked up and moved without warning. Running into the tree…that's pretty normal.

"Hey, Cameron!" shouted Amber from farther ahead. "How much farther?"

"Maybe an hour. We're getting close," echoed Cameron, his voice seemingly miles away from Sans.

"Ugh, finally! My legs are getting tired," replied Faith, somewhere to Sans' right. The tall grass restricted Sans' view slightly; it reminded him of the Grassy Plains back at home base. He shivered at the thought of that; not-so-good memories were associated with that place.

"You're getting tired? I've been puffing embers this entire time, and I have to make sure _not_ to set the whole place on fire!"

Sans heard Amber grumble to herself in front of him.

Sans felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see Papyrus looking down at him, slightly concerned.

"SANS…WHAT HAPPENED BACK AT THE HOUSE?"

Sans felt sweat dripping down his back; he wasn't sure if he should even tell Papyrus.

"well…the medal thing gave me some of my memories back." He quickly covered his mouth as soon as he spoke. He didn't mean to say that right away.

Papyrus stared off into the distance and smiled. Sans swore he saw a twinge of concern and frustration, but he was tired and his mind was likely playing tricks.

"THAT'S GOOD, BROTHER-"

"shhh, the others can't know. they may turn on us or…we may force them into something on accident."

There was a moment of silence between the brothers.

"SO," whispered Papyrus, "WHAT DID YOU REMEMBER?"

"not much bro. just some minor details; nothing about home, or really anything important actually."

Sans explained some of his memories to Papyrus, leaving the key conversation with Alphys out of his description.

"THAT'S TOO BAD, BROTHER!" Papyrus poked the medallion piece. "MAYBE IF YOU FOUND THE OTHER PARTS, YOU'D REMEMBER MORE!"

"well i-" Sans froze mid-sentence.

"bro, you're a genius."

"NYEH HEH HEH! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM GREAT AT SOLVING THESE KINDS OF PUZZLES!"

He gave a dramatic pose, prompting Sans to chuckle. Never got old.

"Okay guys," shouted Cameron, "we're here. Set up camp."

The two brothers caught up with Cameron and the rest of the gang and unslung their packs, taking supplies out of the bags. Faith and Cameron worked to set up some of the tents, while Amber prepared a campfire in a little opening next to the forest. Sans could hear the beating of water against rock, the quiet crackling of sticks, and chirping of bird Pokémon in the distance. It would be a nice place to have a leisurely campout if he weren't so busy trying to figure out about a billion mysteries at once.

Sans and Papyrus' job was to get dinner ready, so Sans began to take out berries from Papyrus' pack, while Papyrus began shuffling through cookware.

"EH…NO…NAH…NOTHING FOR SPAGHETTI!"

"bro, we don't have _time_ for spaghetti."

"BUT THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR SPAGHETTI!"

"not today, bro."

Papyrus somehow procured a chef's hat out of his bag and began stewing a few berries in a pot over the fire, the sweet smell of _something_ making it's way to Sans' nose. Noses were a blessing; Sans couldn't imagine he would do if he didn't have a nose.

"DINNNNNER'S DONE!"

Damn, took Papyrus long enough.

The group sat around the campfire, each taking some of the berry stew and looking at the weird looking mush.

"bro…"

"TRY IT, BROTHER!"

The last time Papyrus said that…Sans didn't remember what exactly happened, but he did know that it wasn't an amazing experience.

When he looked up, he saw the other three looking at him nervously, waiting to see if he would take a bite.

"well…of course, bro."

Sans took a spoonful of the berry stew, brought it up to his mouth, and…

"…what the…"

Sans' stomach instinctively scrunched up when he put the spoon in his mouth, but the stew was pretty good. He let the stew linger in his mouth before swallowing, pleasantly surprised. It had a bit of an odd aftertaste, but at least it was _edible_.

"it's…actually pretty good bro. you're a cool cook."

Papyrus blushed, a bit embarrassed.

"COME ON BROTHER…"

"i'm not kidding, this thing is actually good!"

He scooped a couple more servings of the stew from the pot into his bowl. Seeing that Sans had enjoyed it, the other three reluctantly began to eat their portions.

"Wow…this is good!" Faith began to scarf down more of the stew.

"I mean, it's a little weird if you let it sit in your mouth too long," added Amber, "but it's something I can enjoy!"

"…It's okay…" Cameron picked at it a little bit, slowly eating it. Something must have happened at his house, since while Papyrus' cooking wasn't the best, it was slightly better today than Union food.

The group shared stories, laughs, a few jokes, and a poke at Amber over the meal, but soon it was time to call it a night. Papyrus stored the leftover stew away as Sans and the others climbed into their tents for the night.

But Sans had other plans in store.

He laid on his straw bed for about thirty minutes before slowly opening the tent flap, listening for any of the others. He heard Faith snoring, Cameron mumbling something in his sleep, and Papyrus having some sort of nightmare. Or maybe it was an intense race against Undyne; he wasn't exactly sure.

Sans quietly exited his tent, grabbing his bone in the process. He tiptoed through the camp, making sure not to hit anything or make any loud noise of any type.

He began to relax as he passed the last tent, looking ahead at the forest.

"You couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Sans jumped up, his mysterious blue eye activating in the process, when he saw Amber to his left. She was looking at the night sky, watching the stars overhead.

"yeah…not really."

She pat the grass next to her.

"Sit. We can enjoy each other's company."

Sans' eyes darted between Amber and the forest, weighing his options. He had a mission to do, but Amber would know he snuck off in the night…

Sans began to walk towards the forest when Amber suddenly spoke up.

"Hey, am I really that intolerable?"

He looked back, guiltily.

"nah…it's not that."

"Then where are you going?" she asked. "Come sit."

Sans didn't move.

"You're not really thinking of going _in there_ , are you?"

Wow, how did she know?

"nah, of course not. why would i?"

"Then sit, you idiot."

Defeated, Sans took a seat and looked at the stars in the night sky with Amber. A few minutes passed before either of them spoke.

"You don't really get these kinds of views in the city," she remarked.

"beats the view from underground…"

"You mean in the Union base, right?"

"y-yeah…that…"

He wasn't really thinking about the Exploration Union HQ when he said that. It was some other place that he was thinking of…the details were blurry though.

"I still can't believe we're on an official mission," said Amber. "Noctowl is really putting a lot of trust into us, don't you think?"

Sans' mind jumped back to the odd glances he had gotten from Noctowl the hours leading up to the beginning of their exploration.

"yeah, for some reason i don't know why he'd trust a bunch of misunderstood recruits with something this important."

Amber giggled at the remark. Sans didn't even say something funny.

"huh?"

"Don't worry, you just reminded me of how far we've come in the past couple weeks."

There was more awkward silence.

"I don't think I've known someone who could actually get me as well as you, if you know what I mean."

Sans shrugged and looked at the moon.

"i dunno about that amber. you've known the other two a lot longer than you've known me. heck, i only met you all a couple weeks ago."

"Yeah, but you listen. You're willing to understand. You give people chances."

"huh…i guess so."

Sans saw her looking at him in the corner of his eye. Sans had his bone laying across his lap, his arms behind his head as a pillow as he laid on the grassy floor.

"I'm sorry about that thing earlier."

Sans looked at her, confused.

"hm?"

"You know, that little argument I had with Faith…I'm sorry you had to see that. I was just not in a good mood, and-"

"you don't need to apologize for anything."

"I acted like a bitch to everyone."

"you had the right to act that way."

"Towards my friends?"

"hey, even the best of friends are bound to fight eventually. it's natural."

Since when did he become sympathetic like that? Sans couldn't recount ever understanding these kinds of things as well as he apparently did.

"See…like right there."

"what?"

"You don't even see it…do you?"

"see what?"

Amber let out a nervous chuckle.

"You're very patient, Sans."

"patient is my middle name."

"Very funny, Sans."

When he turned to look at her, he saw her looking deeply into his eyes. He shuffled around, a bit uncomfortable.

"You have to be careful. Someone could take advantage of that."

For some reason, that struck too close to home.

"eh, i try to make sure that doesn't happen."

"You have to make sure you trust the right people…"

Sans was silent as he watched her scoot a little closer to him.

"yeah, you're right."

She was only inches away from his left arm at this point. He was feeling _really_ uncomfortable.

"i mean, i have all of you guys to trust. i couldn't have asked for a better group of friends."

"Not that kind of trust, Sans. I'm talking about the trust you have with those _really_ close to you."

Sans felt a chill go up his spine. Was she trying to…

"…erm…"

Amber took a few seconds to realize the awkward situation she had put Sans in, her face turning bright red.

"O-Oh…s-s-sorry…"

"it's okay…"

It wasn't really okay, but Sans didn't want to upset her.

"S-sorry, I kinda l-lost control of myself…"

Sans couldn't stop himself from chuckling a bit. Amber was pretty cute when she was flustered like that.

"Heeeey…what's so funny?!" Her voice had suddenly become hostile.

"uh…nothing."

"Then why did you la-"

Sans suddenly put his hand over Amber's mouth, Amber showing her displeasure by unleashing a stream of muffled complaints.

"shush. do you hear that?"

Amber stopped talking for a moment, her eyes narrowing. Sans carefully unblocked her mouth and stood up, grabbing his bone.

"Yeah," she replied, "I hear that. And don't ever do that to me _again_."

"no promises."

They were both silent as they listened for the mysterious sound.

"hm…"

Suddenly, he heard rustling somewhere in the grass to his right.

"there, you hear that?"

"How could I not hear that?" Amber complained. "It was so loud."

"shh. follow me, and stay quiet."

Sans held his bone in his left hand and used his right to part some of the grass in front of him. The night was quiet, for the exception of the two walking through the grass.

The rustling came back, this time closer to Sans.

"okay, stay there."

Amber waited where she was as Sans slowly inched closer to the source of the noise. The rustling continued, whoever causing it seeming to have no knowledge of Sans' presence.

When he was within two feet of the source, he gestured for Amber to join him, holding his bone out ready in case of an ambush. As soon as she had joined him, they looked at each other, nodded, and Sans grabbed the grass in front of him.

"three…two…one…"

Sans pulled apart the grass and-

"GAAAH! Get away!"

The unknown Pokémon fired a beam of something at Sans, forcing him to roll out of the way.

"woah woah, relax! we're not going to hurt you!"

As soon as the unknown Pokémon looked directly at Sans, it instantly backed off.

"Sorry…I'm just a bit on edge."

"understandable. it can be pretty chaotic out here."

Looking closer, Sans noticed that the Pokémon was a Glaceon. He seemed pretty beat up, and it looked like there was something else behind him…

"I've been running…for a long time…"

The Glaceon started stumbling around.

"Please…help…us…"

"woah bro, take it easy. we'll do what we can."

"Thanks…"

The Glaceon proceeded to pass out in front of Sans, mid-sentence.

"yikes…" Sans kneeled down and looked at the Glaceon's state. "it looks like he's been through hell and back…but why did he say 'us?'"

Amber trudged past Sans and looked at the unusual mass behind the Glaceon. Her eyes widened and she gasped when she saw what it was.

"Oh god…"

Sans looked up and saw Amber's terrified expression, instantly coming over to her.

"what is…oh my fucking god…"

This was much much worse than the Glaceon.

"do you think she's…"

Sans looked up at Amber, who returned his gaze with a solemn face.

"I don't know, but it looks pretty bad."

"that doesn't even begin to describe this amber…"

Sans stood up and looked at the two collapsed Pokémon. He was going to do other things tonight, but this is more important.

"we gotta get them back to camp, stat."

"Like you have to tell me twice."

* * *

 _ **[Michael's POV]**_

Ugh…my head. What the hell happened? I can't see anything, my vision's blurry.

"Hey guys, he's awake."

Who was that…I don't recognize that voice…

I try to sit up, but my head starts to throb and I'm forced to sit back down. I guess it could be worse; that weird dark creature could have gotten me.

"hey kid, i told you to take it easy."

That must have been Sans, the Cubone I met and basically attacked before I passed out. I see a dark blue blob standing in front of me; I think it's Sans. His hoodie jacket is dark blue, if I remember correctly.

"Why in the…why did you help me?"

The person who I think is Sans is silent.

"uh…because you asked?"

That wasn't the answer I was looking for, but I guess it will have to do.

I blink my eyes several times and wipe them with my paws, and my vision finally begins to clear. I'm laying in some sort of cloth tent on a straw bed, a campfire located some distance in front of the entrance to this structure. I can see tents arranged in a circle around it, and some random supplies surrounding the circle; I reminds me a bit of home.

Sans is leaning on one of the support poles inside the tent, tossing his bone in his hand. He seems to be disturbed by something.

"Where am I?"

Sans shrugged.

"after ya passed out, we took you to camp, which you just happened to wander by."

I grunt and shake my head.

"That's not what I meant."

Sans looks away awkwardly. He must be hiding something.

"well…we're by fountain bluff-"

"Fountain Bluff!? You're kidding me…"

"what? not happy to be rescued? cuz i can definitely arrange for you to be-"

"I just thought that I ran a lot farther away than Fountain Bluff, that's all."

"oh, okay…"

Sans closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and looks back at me. His skull mask seems a bit beat up, but besides that relatively clean. I don't know if he's from around these parts, since he wears clothes and all, but people do what they want to do.

"ok kid, listen. you are in no shape to be moving from that bed, you hear?"

I'm silent.

"Ha, I'm a professional couch potato. This is _nothing_."

Sans let out a little chuckle and winked at me.

"that makes two of us, kid."

I hear shuffling outside the tent, and I crane my neck to look out the tent opening. I see Sans does the same.

"What's going on out there, Sans?"

Sans looks at me then holds his hand up.

"wait here, kid."

He quickly opens the flap and closes it behind him. I lay my head down on my two front paws, trying to listen for anything useful.

"so…any updates?"

I hear Sans asking someone outside the tent.

"Well…"

I don't recognize that voice. It's definitely female, and I don't remember the Fennekin sounding like that.

Sans audibly sighs and I can hear hushed talking I can't decipher.

"what's the call, faith?"

Ah, so the other girl is Faith. Must be that Pikachu.

"I don't know, Sans. I don't know."

It's getting harder for me to focus. I can feel sleep trying to overtake me, but I force myself to stay awake.

"what about…him?"

There was a moment of silence. I have a feeling they're talking about me.

"We shouldn't tell him. Not yet."

Tell me what?

"i think he should know." I hear them have some sort of intense exchange before Faith sighs.

"Fine…tell him then. Don't say I didn't warn you, though."

"course, boss."

I quickly dip my face into my front legs as Sans re-enters the tent, trying to avoid suspicion.

"hey kid…you still up?"

I drowsily lift my head and give him a confused look.

"Yeah…for now, at least."

"can ya walk?"

I try to lift myself up, but all four of my legs are wobbly.

"W-Woah!" I'm struggling to control my balance, and I keep moving back and forth uncontrollably.

"easy there, icicle. if you can't do it, don't sweat it."

"Nah…I think I can do it." I will my legs to stop shaking and I manage to stabilize myself. I feel marginally proud of myself.

"need anything to eat?" Sans looks a bit concerned.

I haven't eaten anything all day, but my stomach feels queasy. I'm pretty sure whatever they give me would come back up instantly with how I'm feeling.

"Nah…I'll pass." I feel like I am going to regret that later.

"ok…follow me, i guess."

Sans whirls his bone around and begins to walk out, using it as a walking cane, even though it was obvious he didn't need a cane. Meanwhile, my legs are basically twigs, only managing to move forward by stumbling in the correct direction.

As I shove my way out of the tent, I see that a few Pokémon are crowded around one of the other tents, all with worried looks on their faces.

"Gaaah!"

I trip over a branch and faceplant into the ground next to the campfire, toppling over a few boxes. The others turn to look at me startled, but they dismiss my accident and continue looking at whatever they were before.

"kid…i told you, if you can't do it you don't have to."

"I…want to…though…" I force myself up a second time, my efforts much more controlled and precise than my first try. Sans is looking at me worriedly, almost as if he didn't want to say anything, but he knew he had to.

"…"

I'm silent as well.

"…What?"

He refuses to make eye contact. Something is definitely going on.

Suddenly, the Fennekin comes up behind Sans and taps him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Sans…"

"yeah, amber?"

Amber whispers something into Sans' ear that I cannot hear. Soon, Amber turns back to the tent and Sans back to me.

"your friend…"

Oh, I had forgotten about Sarah. Well, I'm an idiot.

"What about her?"

"…she's not accepting anything. no help at all."

Huh, that doesn't seem like Sarah.

"Why?"

Sans shrugged.

"do you think you could help out? her condition will probably start deteriorating again at this rate."

I don't know exactly what to say.

"Okay…"

Sans leads me towards the tent that everyone is surrounding. He opens the flap, and I step inside.

"Hey, I told all of you to stay away!"

Huh, she seems pretty angry today. I can see Sarah curled up in the back right corner, facing the cloth wall. Half of her body is bandaged up. The straw is scattered all across the inside of the tent.

I look back at Sans, who simply continues to hold the flap open, offering no suggestions or any facial expressions at all. I nod, and he gestures for the others to leave us alone before closing the flap himself.

As I slowly tiptoe closer to her, I can hear soft sobbing coming from Sarah.

"Heeeeeeey, Sarah."

The sobbing stops and is replaced by pure silence. I don't know what to do, so I try to make some small talk.

"You feeling any better?"

"…"

"Come on Sarah, talk to me." I plop down next to her, but she just scrunches up tighter into a ball.

"G-Go…away…Michael…" She sniffles a bit then looks at me. "H-Ha, you finally evolved…"

I look down at myself and start playing with my ears.

"I wasn't expecting to evolve, but-"

"I like it."

Oof. That caught me off-guard.

"E-Eh?!" I can't think straight. Maybe I have ADD or something.

"Teehee, it's funny to see you act like that."

"Ergh…shut up, Sarah."

Sarah looks me up and down, examining my form. I feel like my privacy is being breached.

"Look at you. You got hurt, and it's all my fault."

"Whaat? Why would it be your fault?"

"If I hadn't just…let myself get hit by Iris…you wouldn't have had to take care of my safety. I would have been able to fend for myself, and as a result of my mistake, you got hurt protecting me."

I'm silent.

"You can't blame yourself for that, Sarah."

"B-But it's true! You're wasting all this time on me…"

"Where did this attitude come from, Sarah?"

She begins sobbing uncontrollably. Oh boy, I'm in for one long night.

I start pawing her head.

"Come on… Look, you're the best friend I could have ever asked for. Any time I spend helping you is well worth it."

"You should have just left me behind. I don't deserve this."

"Goodness Sarah, you deserve so much more than what you think you do." I fall back onto my butt with a thunk, prompting a little giggle from Sarah. I guess anything that makes her happy helps, even if it involves self-infliction of pain.

"Geez Michael, what did I do to get a friend like you?"

"You were you. Plus, we're Eeveelutions. We gotta stick together." It's a fair point. Especially as an Eevee, I had to rely on the others for protection. I was mainly a moral supporter.

"Michael, you know that's a lie. You could have chosen to get a lot closer with any of the others. They're all Eeveelutions too…"

Crap, she's right.

"Well…"

"Besides, I'm boring. Come on, look. Natalie is a firecracker, Monika is sweet, and even Iris is kind of mysterious in her own way. I don't have any interesting qualities."

"You're quirky. Happy-go-lucky."

"That's not me, Michael. That's what I do to make sure you don't know the real me."

Huh…I didn't expect that.

"Well…I'm sure I'd love to meet the _real_ you, then." I scoot a bit closer.

"If you had told me about your internal conflicts earlier, I would have tried to help as much as I could."

"And waste _your_ time? Nah. Don't think I haven't seen you and Nat."

Huh? We just like chasing bird Pokémon and having mock battles…

"T-That? We just like to have fun-"

"You don't need to lie for my sake, Michael."

Damn, she's not giving in. I guess I have to try my trump card…

"M-Michael?! W-What are you doing?!"

I snuggle up next to her. "I'll keep you company, then. Just like old times."

"…"

Did it work?

"W-Why Michael…"

"I'm not letting you suffer alone. That's final."

Sarah's quiet. I feel her relax next to me.

"Aaah…this is…nice…"

"See, you're feeling better already."

I can hear a little shuffling outside, but I don't care.

"Let me…turn around…" I see Sarah try to stand, but her legs won't let her, and she falls on me. "Owww, that hurt…"

"Ugh…Sarah…can't…breathe…"

"O-Oh! Sorrrrrry!" She rolls off me and I take a deep breath in as she tries to explain her mistake. Too adorable.

"Just relax, okay?"

She starts crying again.

"I should be happy right now…but I'm not…"

"Shhhhhhh…don't think about that. You need to rest and heal up; we have a long way to go after this."

She looks at me over her back.

"You mean…we aren't going to stay with these nice people?"

"Hm?" That never really occurred to me. Then again, I always seem to be the last person to find out about things. If Sarah insists though, I guess it's worth considering. I'll talk to Sans about it tomorrow.

"Michael, they offered to help us when they didn't need to. I wouldn't mind hanging out around them." She winks. "But only as long as you are with me."

* * *

 _ **[Sans]**_

"SAAAAAANS! GET YOUR LAZY BUTT UP!"

"uwa?!"

Sans jolted up out of his straw bed and whacked his head into the top bar of the tent, proceeding to rub his head in pain.

"geez paps, can you tone it down a bit?"

Sans grabbed his skull mask from the floor and dusted it off, sliding it cleanly over his head.

"SANS…IT'S GETTING LATE!"

"okay paps," Sans replied, "i'm coming!"

Sans' head was ringing as he stepped outside of his tent to the harsh, bright glare of sunshine. He covered his eyes, looking around the camp as he saw Faith, Amber, and Cameron all packing up supplies.

"geez…paps, how long was I out?"

Papyrus grunted and looked away.

"FAR TOO LONG, BROTHER!"

"Heeeeeey!" shouted Amber, "you're finally awake!" She began to sprint towards Sans.

"well…yeah-"

Amber continued to sprint past a confused Sans.

"I can finally take this down!" She began to work on the cloth structure, quickly dismantling the poles and frame until all that was left was a neat, organized square of folded fabric and metal poles.

"wow…"

"Impressive, right? I think the only thing I learned from Noctowl was how to properly set up and take down a tent." Amber laughed to affirm her point.

Sans' gaze drifted from Amber, to Faith, to the last remaining tent, the one with the injured Espeon.

"hey amber…did the glaceon ever leave the tent?"

Amber looked up, pensive, and shook her head.

"Nah, I don't think so."

Sans walked over to the tent and quietly opened the flap, looking inside.

"aw. that's cute."

The two were snuggled together in the corner, both sound asleep. Sans looked at the two silently for a moment before leaving them alone.

"ugh…i got a job to do."

Sans looked at the others before coughing to get their attention.

"someone needs to stay behind to watch these two."

Faith shrugged and lifted a box into a bag.

"I guess you're right," she replied. "You can do that, can't you?"

"erk? but-"

Sans froze. This could play into his plan. Once the others left on their mission, he could leave on _his_ and be back before they returned.

"ok. i got it, sparky."

"Geez Sans, when did the weird nicknames start?" Faith gave him a playful shove out of the way as she messed with the adventure bag, making sure everything was ready.

Sans didn't really know when they started. He had assumed it had to do with the medallion, but it could just be a coincidence.

"just relax, i can handle this."

Cameron walked over and put a flipper on his shoulder and nodded.

"We'll be back as soon as possible."

Sans gave him a double thumbs-up.

As Sans watched the group walk into the forest, he leaned against the last tent and smiled to himself. This was his chance.

He had a job to do.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	14. Conflicted

_**[Sans]**_

Sans packed up the last of his personal supplies into his bag as the early morning sky began to give way to the bright blue of a summer's day. On occasion, his eyes darted back towards the tent, but most of what little focus he had was dedicated to preparing for his mission. Whatever business those two had was not his problem.

" _Your primary objective is to search for clues to the whereabouts of Team Cloud. We sent them a few days ago on a completely unrelated mission to Fountain Bluff, and they never returned."_

Noctowl's voice hadn't stopped sounding since yesterday. He was given vague instructions and told to look for "clues," which could be anything and anywhere.

"ugh…i don't even know where to start."

Sans flipped his hood over his skull mask and slung the pack over his shoulders, strapping his bone into one of the side pockets. He grasped the medallion piece, looked back once more, then stuffed his loose hand into his hoodie pocket.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. He-

"Hey."

Sans spun around, shocked, looking to see the Glaceon standing outside the tent, eying him suspiciously.

"o-oh…heya."

The Glaceon looked around the now empty camp before turning back to Sans.

"I don't think I ever greeted you officially. I'm Michael."

"well…nice to meet you, michael."

Sans turned back towards the forest, his brow wet with sweat. The longer he waited, the less time he had. Logically.

"Hey," said Michael, "you goin' somewhere?"

"what makes you say that?"

Michael pointed at the pack on Sans' back.

"Looks like you're all packed up."

"it's none of your business really-"

"Hey, no need to be so defensive. I just wanted to say thank you for your help."

Sans took a sharp breath between his teeth and reluctantly turned, once again, to Michael.

"I also just wanted to ask if you would let us stick around. With your group."

Sans tilted his head to the side, curious. What an odd request.

"sure," Sans replied, "i guess so. as long as the others are okay."

"Heeeey Michael, what's going on out there?!" The girl's voice resonated from inside the tent.

"Not now, Sarah!" shouted Michael. There was some grumbling in response.

Sans made a head gesture towards the tent.

"sounds like she's feeling better."

Michael shrugged.

"I guess you could say that."

"dunno icicle, looks like you two had fun last night." Sans gave a little wink.

Michael's face turned bright red as Sans burst out laughing.

"i'm joking, kiddo. you should have seen your face, though."

"U-Uh…I'ma get back to her."

"yeah, go do that."

"Now...e-excuse me."

Michael took off back towards the tent, leaving Sans alone outside.

"finally…"

Sans quickly turned and ran towards the forest, holding the straps of his pack. He'd lost a bunch of valuable time; he had to make it back up. Was teleportation a good alternative? Probably not; he'd likely miss something and use up too much energy.

He looked up and down the tree line as he pushed his way into the forest, past shrubs and small trees. He continued to scan his surroundings, looking for any signs of past disturbance, activity, or just Pokémon. He hadn't taken the same path the others had to enter the Mystery Dungeon, so it was likely that wild Pokémon would be few and far between, which wasn't a bad thing.

Suddenly, something caught Sans' eye; a light blue cloth hanging on a branch, torn and faded from exposure to the elements. He held his hand out as his eye glowed blue, taking the cloth down from the branch using telekinesis.

"crap."

The mystery cloth was a scarf belonging to a member of the Exploration Union, a badge still pinned upon the front. Sans checked the insignia on the badge.

"yup."

He craned his neck and looked around the nearby forest for any other possible clues, but nothing was in sight. He stuffed the bandanna into his pocket; he'll report in to Noctowl with this.

His fingers suddenly curled around the red ribbon he had forgotten to take out. He pulled the thin strip out with his right hand, holding it carefully. That Flareon was in a hurry to get away…but why?

Suddenly, Sans heard a twig snap somewhere behind him.

"who's there?!"

He drew his bone from the pack and held it in front of him, like a sword. No movement.

"gah…i must be hearing things."

Sans scratched the back of his head before readjusting his hood and putting his bone into the pack. Gotta keep moving.

Sans continued to push through the dark forest for about another twenty minutes before he came across a clearing in the woods. He carefully checked around to make sure there were no threats before stepping into the middle. He took his pack off and took a couple berries out, popping them in his mouth. Nothing like a good break.

"Hehehehehe…" The voice echoed across the meadow. Sans' eye glowed faintly when he heard it; not these fools again. He carefully drew his bone and looked around carefully.

"ya know, if y'all are gonna mess with me, i want to see you do it."

Just as expected, Sableye emerged from a nearby bush.

"Gweheheh. Long time no see, Cubone."

Teddiursa proceeded, followed by Zorua.

"Did you really remember us?" asked Teddiursa. "I'm flattered."

"can the chatter, stuff 'n fluff."

"OooOOoh, nicknames, I'm SOOO scared now!"

The three laughed maniacally.

"don't think i'll take you all on at once, because i will."

Teddiursa cracked her knuckles and snarled at Sans, the Unity Loop shining in the sunlight. "I'll make you eat your words."

"bring it."

Sans jumped back instinctively as Teddiursa charged at him, slashing her claws simultaneously. He swung his bone back to whack Sableye in the face, sending him stumbling backwards. He parried a swipe from Zorua with his bone, then held his hand out, using his telekinetic powers to slam Teddiursa in the ground. The three fell back to regroup, Sans beginning to work a sweat.

"You're more powerful than the last time we fought you," panted Teddiursa, staring right at Sans.

"nah, i'm weaker. you've just become soft."

"Now you've asked for it."

Sans stepped back as the three Unity Loops began to glow once again, Zorua and Sableye charging Teddiursa with Dark-type moves.

"shit."

Sans desperately looked around for any sort of backup plan, when he suddenly stopped.

"i'm an idiot."

He sat on the ground and stared directly at Teddiursa, who chuckled.

"Given up, huh?"

Sans took a bite out of another berry as the move continued charging. _Wait for it._

Teddiursa lunged forward, prepared to slash right through him.

"GRAAAAAAH!"

 _Wait._

She was right in front of him.

"now."

Sans' eye glowed brightly as he teleported right out of the way of the super Night Slash, appearing behind Sableye. He easily took Sableye out with two easy swings of his bone club.

"give up yet?"

Teddiursa was about to speak when she suddenly stepped farther from Sans, a terrified expression on her face.

"heh…" Looks like Sans won.

Teddiursa shakily lifted her left hand and pointed behind Sans. Sans heard a familiar gurgling behind him, turning his stomach upside down.

"f-fucking hell…"

Sans turned to see an Amalgamate towering above him, the merged parts of other Pokémon sloshing around it's formless body. He quickly grabbed Sableye and dragged him towards Teddiursa and Zorua, who were now backing away from a couple other Amalgamates who had appeared. Soon, the four were back to back, surrounded by the obscene monsters.

"W-What the hell you playin' at, Cubone?" shouted Teddiursa, inching closer to Sans.

"hey, kid, this isn't me. i'm just as surprised as you are."

"GURRARAAAAH!" The Amalgamates bellowed as loud as they could, scaring all the local bird Pokémon.

Sans cursed under his breath. This was not the time for this. Not when he was stuck with…these three fools.

"don't touch these things. they'll suck you in."

"What makes you think I'm gonna believe you?!"

"well…do you want to try? be my guest."

"Screw off."

None of the other Amalgamates Sans had seen were this aggressive. He looked around carefully, analyzing each Amalgamate, but none of them seemed to consist of any Team Cloud members with Noctowl's descriptions.

All four of them were right next to each other. Now or never.

"we need to fight to get out."

"Grrrrr…"

"hey, if we don't work together here, we don't stand a chance."

Team Claw was silent.

"temporary truce?"

The Amalgamates were inching closer every second.

"…Fine. Just this once. But if you make one wrong move, I'll kill you."

"if i make wrong move, we're dead anyways." He quickly relayed instructions to the other three before looking right at the Amalgamate in front of him. Sans spun his bone around to look fancy, then snarled at the Amalgamate.

"let's dance, jello-man."

"GUAAAAAARGHH!"

Sans held his hand out and focused all his power into controlling the Amalgamate with telekinesis. As the blob glowed blue, he force-palmed the monster into a nearby tree, temporarily stunning it. Meanwhile, Teddiursa unleashed a Super Night Slash on the Amalgamate in front of her, knocking it backwards.

"Woah!" Teddiursa attempted to pull her paw out of the Amalgamate, which had managed to grab onto her while she unleashed the attack. With Zorua and Sableye's help, she broke loose, which angered the other Amalgamates.

"told ya. now jump."

Sans slammed his bone into the ground as Team Claw jumped into the air, shaking the ground around them. The Amalgamates shook and stirred, but their form only adjusted to the vibrations, doing nothing to them.

"crap." Sans sidestepped a hammer fist from one of the Amalgamates, then lifted one of the others into the air and flung them into the ground.

"These things can't be damaged!" shouted Zorua, who rolled and fired a Dark Pulse at one of the Amalgamates.

"we don't need to defeat them! we just need to buy time to escape!"

Sans ducked to avoid a swipe from the nearest Amalgamate, then knelt down to allow Sableye to jump over him and fire a Shadow Ball. He quickly held his hand out, which began to glow, and launched a magical bone attack at the Amalgamate that Teddiursa was fighting, temporarily distracting it.

"What kind of attack was that?!" shouted Teddiursa, who rolled out of the way of the Amalgamate.

"a true pro never reveals his secrets." Unfortunately, Sans didn't know the secret either. All he knew was that it had something to do with his psychic abilities, and that after the initial rush against Graveler and crew, he wasn't able to use that attack until he wore the medallion piece.

Distracted, Sans barely managed to blow a downstrike from an Amalgamate with his bone, which began to dissolve into the beast.

"hey…give that back!" Sans' eye glowed blue as he forcefully took the bone back from the Amalgamate.

Suddenly, a memory sparked into his head.

"guys, run on my signal."

"What the hell, Cubone?!" shouted Sableye, who barely dodged a globby attack from an Amalgamate. "These things are just gonna chase us!"

"trust me. again."

"I hope you're right about this!" screamed Teddiursa, who slashed at one of the Amalgamates mid-sentence.

Sans closed his eyes and teleported to the middle of the field, concentrating.

"three…"

His left hand began to glow once again.

"two…"

It clenched into a fist.

"one…"

His eyes sprung open, both of them dark black. His left eye shined an aqua blue; it's full form.

"go!"

Sans swung his hand upwards, a giant bone wall rising from the ground to block the Amalgamates. He kept a steady stance and held both his hands out to keep the wall from collapsing, the Amalgamates bashing it with all they could. Meanwhile, Teddiursa and the rest of Team Claw began to run out of the opening, in the opposite direction from which Sans came. Sans turned his head momentarily, and saw Teddiursa looking back.

"Well…you coming or not?!"

Sans turned and sprinted towards Teddiursa, the bone wall dropping instantly. The Amalgamates began to pursue the group, but they had gotten too much of a head start.

After what seemed like ages of running, Team Claw and Sans collapsed to the ground, out of breath. It had begun to rain sometime during the chase, and while the trees blocked some of the droplets, Sans could still hear the pitter-patter of the rain hitting his mask.

"That…was…close. KFF!" Teddiursa hit her chest with her fist, trying to clear her lungs.

"good…god." Sans carefully took his pack off of his back and tossed a few berries to Team Claw. "here."

The group enjoyed a short meal of Oran Berries and recovered their energy, but Sans knew that the peace wouldn't last long.

An awkward silence came upon the group.

"I gotta admit Cubone-"

"it's sans."

"Okay, Sans." Teddiursa spoke almost as if saying Sans' name hurt. Which it probably did.

"I guess…I owe you one. We wouldn't have made it out of there if it wasn't for you."

More silence.

"I guess things go back to the way they were, huh?"

"yeah, i guess so."

Teddiursa held her hand out, and Sans carefully accepted the handshake, feeling his hand being crushed.

"Seriously. Thank you. We'll remember this."

Sans gave a polite nod and watched as Team Claw disappeared into the forest. He felt in his pocket for the bandanna; it was still there.

"i don't think this day could get any weirder, and it's not even that late."

A branch snapped behind Sans. Again, Sans drew his bone and looked around carefully, trying to see if Team Claw was about to jump him again. Fortunately and unfortunately, he didn't seem to sense them. Was he being followed?

"ugh…"

Sans began his trek into the forest once again, flipping his hood back up. This time, however, he used his bone as a walking stick. The fight with the Amalgamates had completely exhausted him, especially the bone wall.

He continued to wander around for about an hour.

"hmm-uwa?!"

Sans' left foot suddenly missed the ground, but he had already put his weight onto it, expecting the forest floor. He tumbled forward, falling into a small ditch.

"uewwgh, gross." Sans picked himself up and wiped off his jacket and skull mask, trying to clean off the dirt.

"now i have to-"

Sans' eyes narrowed as he looked down at the ditch. This wasn't an ordinary ditch. There was some sort of struggle here.

He grabbed some of the dirt and ran it through his hands.

"it's still dry."

This had to have happened during the last half-hour or so. Likely sooner.

"AIIIEIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The scream, although it was almost on cue, still startled Sans.

"Get OFF ME!"

That voice…it seemed familiar.

Shocked, Sans quickly dug his hand into his right pocket and pulled out the red ribbon. It couldn't be…that had to be a coincidence.

"NOO…Noooooo…"

Her voice was getting weaker.

"crap."

Sans quickly took off, running alongside the ditch. He came across another opening in the forest, where…

"s-shit…what the…f-fuck…"

Sans instantly felt queasy and gagged several times. He'd never seen this…in person before.

The Amalgamate was…melting someone.

"S-Stoooop…"

The Flareon was being grasped tightly by the Amalgamate, which roared in triumph. Her form was beginning to deteriorate, and he could see the life beginning to drain from her eyes.

"wait a second…"

The Amalgamate had some bright-blue goo as a part of it's form…

"shit, it's team cloud."

Staraptor, Pidgeot, and Unfezant were all fused together into one being…an experienced group of Union veterans. The three had lost all sense of self…all their feelings and motions were driven by raw emotions. They would no longer listen to anyone.

But Sans wasn't ready to give up.

"hey! hold on! don't give up!"

The Flareon weakly gazed in Sans' direction, and her eyes lit up for a moment when she recognized his form.

"I-It's you…"

If he didn't do something, she would be completely absorbed in the next few seconds.

Mustering the last of his strength, Sans lifted his left hand and focused on pulling the Flareon away from the Cloud Amalgamate. Her form began to glow blue, and the Amalgamate began to screech in anger.

Sans was sweating profusely under his mask, so he threw it off, despite the rain. He was barely holding onto her, and he was only slowing down the process and making it more painful for her at this point.

"gaah…i don't know…"

His grip on his powers was weakening.

"Hey Sa-WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Sans' focus suddenly drifted away from the Flareon and towards Michael, who ran from behind him towards the Amalgamate.

"what the…i thought i told you to stay at camp!"

"We followed you here," replied Michael, pointing behind Sans, where Sarah was standing, most of her body still bandaged up. "Besides, I thought _you_ were supposed to be watching us."

So, it wasn't just his mind playing tricks; Sans was being followed.

"Heeey!" shouted Sarah, trying to get Sans' attention.

Sans awkwardly turned his focus back to pulling the Flareon out of the Amalgamate; how could that girl be so cheerful in this situation.

"can't you guys see i'm busy?"

Sans continued to focus more power into his telekinesis, but he was almost completely out of breath.

"What the hell is that?!" shouted Michael, looking at the Amalgamate.

"M…Michael?" The Flareon mumbled Michael's name under her breath, as she came into his view.

"Nat?!" Michael's eyes darted between Sans, the Amalgamate, and the Flareon. "W-We'll get you out of there! Come on Sarah!"

Michael sprinted right at the amalgamate, grabbing one of the Flareon's visible paws and pulling against the Amalgamate with all his power. Sarah happily skipped up beside him and grabbed the other.

"the hell you two doin'? if you get too close, you'll be absorbed as well!"

"We…can't just leave her to die…Sans!" shouted Michael, pulling along with Sarah, who was trying to do her best despite being injured.

"Guys…just go." The Flareon was having a hard time staying conscious. "They want me…they want me…"

"NO! Stay with us!"

"SKREEEEEEE!" The Cloud Amalgamate wasn't giving up.

Sans felt his own consciousness slipping. This was doing a number on him.

"urk…agh…"

The blue surrounding the Flareon's body was fading, and his sight was blurring.

"SANS," shouted Michael, "you can't STOP! You've gotten this close!" His voice sounded miles away.

"ugh…can't…hang on…"

Suddenly, the Flareon jolted slightly, freeing a bit of her from the Cloud Amalgamate.

"Just a bit more, Sans!" screamed Michael, "we've just about got it!"

Sans wanted to give up…he couldn't…go longer…

But then he saw it. In the corner of his eye. Michael and Sarah ferociously trying to pull the Flareon out of the Cloud Amalgamate; a hopeless endeavor. But…they weren't fazed, despite the danger they had put themselves in, Michael especially. After sacrificing so much for Sarah…he's willing to sacrifice himself _again_?

Suddenly, four words flew through his head.

 _YOU. DIRTY. BROTHER. KILLER._

Those words sparked something in Sans. Maybe it had something to do with his past. Something about standing on the sidelines. Helpless. Regret. Despair. _Loss_.

"not…this…time."

One last burst of energy surged through Sans, and he focused it all into pulling the Flareon out. His left eye was burning in his head, making his head throb. The Flareon was glowing a bright aqua blue, Sans' left hand emitting a similar aura.

Bit by bit, the Flareon was freed, until all that remained was her hind legs. Sans felt the burst of energy fading away, but he continued on.

"Sans…we…almost…" Michael voice bounced inside of Sans' head as his vision began to fill with white…

"i…"

Sans' vision cut to black as he collapsed to the ground.

* * *

 _ **[Michael's POV]**_

"Urgggghhh!"

I pull on Natalie's front right paw as hard as I can. I see Sarah trying her best with Nat's left, but she's still weak from yesterday's events. Sans is trying his best, but he's fading, fading fast.

Suddenly, the blue glow surrounding her body disappears.

"Sans!"

I shout his name as I turn to see him lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Oh crap-"

Sarah and I lose our footing as Natalie slips free of the giant blob creature. We tumble backwards as the thing screeches angrily.

"Yeah…that's right!" I feel proud of myself. "Get on out of here!"

The blob monster looks at us (at least I think it does) with disdain before disappearing into the forest.

"Wooohoo!" I jump happily and high-five Sarah as we have a little celebration. "That's how it's done!"

"Y-Yeaaaah! We did it Michael! Even though…you basically did most of the work."

I put my paw on Sarah's shoulder.

"You did your part too. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have freed Nat. Besides, Sans is the one you should be thanking."

Oh yeah, that's right. He's unconscious.

I try to rush over to help Sans, but something grabs my back right leg and pulls me to the ground. Sarah continues over to him without me.

"…M-Michael?"

There are so many things running through my tiny head right now that I forgot completely about Natalie. She's crying softly. Is everyone emotionally unstable right now?

"T-That was…scary…"

I don't know what to do. I'm not a therapist, for crying out loud.

"It's gone now…you're okay now." Wow, way to state the obvious. I'm a genius.

"I almost died…if it weren't for you and Sarah and that other guy, I would have…"

I try to give her a hug.

"That doesn't matter now. The point is that the thing is gone, you're safe, and we're back together now."

I feel her carefully return the hug.

"T-Thank you…"

A moment of silence passes between us before she breaks it.

"So…anyways…" She notices how close we got and jumps back. "EWWW, what do you think you're doing?!"

"U-Uh-" I stumble with my words.

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I don't want to hear what you have to say."

And we're back to regularly scheduled programming.

"Anyways Michael, you evolved! Finally, I was tired of doing EVERYTHING for you." She turns away and scoffs at me. I laugh in return.

"I think you just liked pushing me around." I poke her. "Now that we're the same size, you can't do that anymore."

"E-Eh?! Who says that?! I can still push you around all I want!"

She tries to ram me backwards, but now that I'm a Glaceon instead of an Eevee I can feel how much weaker her pushes are relative to her size. As a tiny fluff-ball, everything could move me.

I stumble backwards in order to make her feel stronger.

"O-Oh no! You're t-too strong!" I feign dying on the forest floor.

"Haha! Look like I'm still number one!" She looks around then turns back to me, puzzled. "Where's Monika and Iris?"

I gulp.

"U-Uh…"

"Heeeeeey Michael! He's awake!" Sarah shouts at me from the other side of the forest meadow. Good timing.

I turn to Natalie.

"I'll fill you in, later. Let's get over there."

I get up on my feet and I trot over to Sarah, where she's watching Sans shakily take berries out of his pack and pass them out.

"here." Sans offers me one.

I graciously take it.

"Thanks, Sans."

We all munch on the berries. The sweet juices and the slightly bitter aftertaste get me every time. Of course, nothing beats the Marowak's delicious berry stew. That thing was _out of this world_.

"okay…"

Sans carefully stands up and eyes each of us, one by one, with this piercing stare that sends a chill down my spine.

"i appreciate the help from you two, michael and sarah, and i'm sure she does too." He points at Natalie.

"Of course." I wouldn't have done it differently.

Sarah is silent, so I have to nudge her to get her to speak.

"O-Oh! It's no problem! Teeheehee…"

Ugh, god dammit Sarah.

Sans turns right to me.

"can we talk. in private."

I don't like how his eyes are staring into my soul.

"Yeah…it's no problem."

I tell the girls to go chat about girl stuff and I walk with Sans a fair distance away from them, behind a tree. Before I know it, his left hand is around my neck, my heartbeat accelerating past what is likely healthy.

"Ack…Sans…what the hell?!"

"hey kid, i told you to stay there."

"Actually Sans, you never said that." If my recount of this morning was correct, I excused myself to help Sarah.

He's silent.

"urgh…you're right." He lets go of my neck and I take several deep breaths.

"you should really keep to yourself, icicle. otherwise you might get yourself into trouble."

"And where would you be if I _didn't_ follow you."

Sans looks like he wants to strangle me again, but I know I'm in the right here.

"kid…how much did you see."

Sarah and I basically followed him the entire time, but I don't know if I should tell him that. I don't want to push him over the edge.

"Just this. Nothing else."

Sans let out of a sigh of relief. Something about that skirmish with those other three must be a touchy subject.

"okay." He turns away from me. "i've decided i'll let you stick around. you and your friends."

"Thanks, Sans, you have no idea-"

"but nobody can know about what you saw today. any of it."

Nothing that I saw seemed natural. Why the hell should I hide it?

"But…wouldn't this be useful for the others to know?"

"you heard me kid. this stays between us."

Sans seems serious about this. But still, why would he hide something this important?

"…Okay, Sans."

I really don't like where Sans is going with this, but if I'm to stay safe and protect the others like Monika wanted, I have to go along with Sans. I'll have to keep an eye on him.

"thanks, kid." He chuckles. "c'mon icicle, we should get the others and head back. we don't want to be gone when the others return."

I follow Sans as we go to get Natalie and Sarah. As we backtrack our steps, Sarah and I talk about various random things to take our minds off of recent events. In the corner of my eye, I see Sans slip Natalie her red hair ribbon, which she seems excited to see. I didn't even know she lost it in the first place, let alone know how _Sans_ ended up with it, but that's a story for another day.

We reach camp and try to settle down in anticipation for the return of the rest of Team Green. Sans seems extra fidgety and keeps looking down at something in his hand, but I don't decide to question him on it.

I've seen enough for one day.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


	15. Debrief

_**[Sans]**_

"SAAAAAAAAANS, WAKE UP, YOU LAZYBONES!"

"uwa?!" Sans jolted up in his bed, ramming his forehead into the ceiling. Ah, the joy of being home again. Even though he still wasn't completely familiar with the routine, at least it was predictable.

"BROTHER," scolded Papyrus, "YOU NEED TO STOP DOING THAT OR YOU WILL BEGIN LOSING BRAIN CELLS!"

Sans clutched his forehead with his right hand as he retrieved his skull mask from a hook hanging off of the bedframe.

"ugh…what time is it?" He hopped off of the top bunk and landed on his feet, mask still in hand and hand still on face.

"TOO LATE, BROTHER!" Papyrus stared at Sans, his frustration evident in his eyes. Papyrus' bandanna was tied around his head, like always.

"not helpful, bro." Sans carefully slipped his skull mask over his head, adjusting it until it felt comfortable. He momentarily grasped the medallion piece, took a deep breath, then-

"Whooops, sorryyyyyyy!" Sarah shoved by Sans, knocking his skull mask off of his face. He grumbled as he readjusted the skull mask a second time. His gaze somehow landed on Michael, who was eyeing Sans with a pensive look on his face.

"mornin' icicle," mumbled Sans.

"Morning, Sans," replied Michael. Didn't seem like Michael wasn't up for conversation this morning, nor was anyone. Tension lingered in the room.

Sans shuffled over to Faith, who was adjusting her green bow while looking at the mirror.

"Hey Sans, what's up?" Her voice was eccentric, like always.

"i thought union protocol said that we don't need to report to morning role-call the day after a mission."

Faith sighed and turned to look at Sans, her bow now neatly tied and placed on her ear.

"Yes, but we need to debrief our findings to Noctowl." She grabbed Sans' hood and began dragging him out of the room. "And I'm not going alone."

"ugh…couldn't we do this later?"

Faith pushed open the door and closed it behind her, dropping Sans' hood.

"hey faith, i left my bone in there-"

"I don't really care, Sans. I'm tired, grumpy, and don't want to hear any complaints." She glared at him over her shoulder. "You're happy I agreed to let those three stick around, Sans."

"yeah yeah, whatever. let's just get this over with."

Sans adjusted his new silver badge on his green Union bandanna, tucking it under his hoodie jacket.

Sans had waited for an hour with the three Eeveelutions before the other four returned with the missing ambassador. After being lectured over the importance of efficiency and teamwork by the ambassador, Sans was personally scolded by Faith for giving in to Michael's request, despite the situation they were put in. Trying to argue his case while keeping his escapade in the forest a secret was not an easy task. When they warped back to HQ last night, Sans passed out the instant he hit the straw bed.

The past week's events continued to cycle through Sans' head as Faith led the way to Noctowl's office. With everything going on, Sans wasn't sure what to think. It didn't even feel like a week; it felt more like a year. Emotional rollercoasters can do those things to people.

Of course, there was one thing he had to think: what to tell Noctowl. He had the bandanna still stowed in his right hoodie pocket, but past that, Sans was unsure whether or not to tell Noctowl about the incident he had with the Cloud Amalgamate. If Noctowl put two and two together…who knew what he would do to him and Papyrus.

"Okay, suck it up Sans, we're here."

Just before opening the door, she turned around and pointed a finger at Sans.

"And remember, I'm doing all the talking."

"okay ma'am."

Sans wasn't very inclined to talk, anyways.

As she opened the door, Sans saw Noctowl quickly putting a stack of papers into a file and putting it to the side, offering the two to take a seat. Sans looked around the room absent-mindedly as Faith ran through all the various missions, bringing up Team Claw, the ambassador mission, and explaining the Eeveelution incident to Noctowl, while cleverly leaving out the family drama and the Amalgamate. Noctowl was taking notes on a pad of paper the whole time.

"And that is all, sir," said Faith, standing up and jumping off the chair. Sans sighed in relief; finally.

"Thank you Faith," he replied, "you are dismissed."

Sans was about to follow her out the door when Noctowl put a wing up.

"No. You stay here."

Sans froze and watched as Faith closed the door and left the room, leaving him alone with the giant bird.

"Mission report," Noctowl ordered. His voice was much more stern than it was a few seconds ago.

Sans turned to look at him in the eyes, his hand shuffling in his pockets. He pulled out the bandanna and placed it on the table.

"during their retrieval mission, i went off on my own and found this bandanna."

Noctowl gingerly picked up the piece of cloth and inspected it, turning the badge in his wing.

"Did you find anything else?"

"no, sir." Sans felt his heart pounding in his chest.

Noctowl eyed him suspiciously before sighing and putting the bandanna into a drawer.

"Well, at least we know they were there at some point."

Sans began to stand up when Noctowl stopped him again.

"No, not yet."

"but sir, that was all you asked of me to-"

"This doesn't have anything to do with the mission."

Sans turned to see Noctowl holding out the file in front of him. Sans nervously took the manila folder in his hands and opened it up.

"oh my god."

Inside the folder was a picture of the Amalgamate he and Amber had found at the Tree of Life, along with profiles of all of the Pokémon who had disappeared, including Union teams. He shuffled through the papers, trying to recount the Amalgamates to see if any of these Pokémon could have possibly been part of one. Unfortunately, many of them fit the bill, including Team Cloud.

"sir…what the hell is this?" Sans focused all his might into keeping his voice steady, trying not to tip off what he knew. He handed the file back to Noctowl.

"We don't know. That's the problem." Noctowl paced around the room nervously.

"But I think you may know something."

"i don't understand-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Noctowl was staring him down, an inch away from his face.

"Don't play dumb, Sans. I know you were around the Tree of Fates not too long before we found this thing. And don't think I haven't been watching you. Normal Pokémon don't have some of the abilities that you have. Most Pokémon aren't as strong as you, and you aren't exactly the most powerful Pokémon either. Not to mention that these disappearances started right around after our scout team found you and your brother were found unconscious in the forest."

Sans tried to reply, but the words were stuck in his throat. Noctowl scoffed and walked back to his desk.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. You do know more than you let on. But let me tell you something."

"hm?"

"Two Pokémon not from our world, who share a bond no others hold, shall tip the balance we hold so dear and plunge the world into chaos and fear."

Sans gulped audibly.

"Ah, so you recognize it?"

"y-yeah sir, that's the heroes' prophecy. the first verse, i mean."

"Well, Sans, do you know what the purpose of the Exploration Union is?"

"sir, our purpose is to serve and protect the pokémon of this world from harm."

"Very intuitive, Sans. That is correct. And as the Unionmaster, what is my job?"

"coordinate operations to protect your assigned area?"

"That is also correct."

Noctowl was now walking back and forth behind his desk, eyeing Sans carefully. There was a weird look in his gaze-

Sans' eyes widened for a moment, recognizing the same glint that he saw in Cameron's eyes. He masked his surprise, which Noctowl luckily did not notice.

"Now, Sans, what do I have to do when a threat appears in my sector?"

"well, you eliminate the threat, whether or not that involves arrest or acquisition."

"I wouldn't be doing my job well if I couldn't eliminate a threat that's sitting right in front of me, correct?"

"correct, sir."

Sans knew exactly where this was going. He had to escape when he had a chance.

"Sans, I –" Noctowl suddenly paused in the middle of his sentence and blinked a couple times, looking confused.

"sir?"

Noctowl glanced and saw Sans terrified, squirming in his seat.

"Oh…I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry, Sans. That was very brash and I'm just really frustrated about all these disappearances. I jump to conclusions when I'm like that, haha." He nervously scratched the back of his head with his wing.

"yeah…haha." Sans breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're…dismissed." Noctowl fell into his chair, a dejected expression on his face. Sans awkwardly got out of his seat and left the room. His wandering gaze happened to land on Papyrus, who, for some reason, was leaning against the wall next to the office.

"paps?"

Papyrus looked up and was surprised to see Sans, smiling and waving.

"NYEH HEH HEH! HELLO, BROTHER!"

"what are you doing here?"

"WAITING FOR YOU, LAZYBONES! YOU WERE IN THERE FOREVER!"

Sans gripped the medallion in his hand and walked up to Papyrus, who was still smiling.

"where are the others?"

"I THINK THEY'RE ALL DOING THEIR OWN THINGS RIGHT NOW."

"good."

Sans dragged Papyrus aggressively back to the dorm room, closing and locking the door.

"BROTHER?! WHAT IS THIS ABOUT!"

"paps, they're onto us."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"the prophecy. noctowl thinks that we're the two mentioned in the first line."

Papyrus looked away and thought for a bit before turning back to Sans.

"SO WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS THAT…THEY'RE GOING TO…TRY AND…KILL US?!"

"well, maybe not that far, but you're on the right track. i don't know if we are the two mentioned, but i know for a fact that they will do their best to make sure the world doesn't fall apart. they'll try and get rid of us to confirm the prophecy is not coming true yet."

"WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS?"

"they still can't know, bro. who knows if they will turn on us if they find out."

Papyrus sighed and looked at Sans.

"OKAY, BROTHER. I TRUST YOU. BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BELIEVE THEY WILL NOT LEAVE OUR SIDE!"

"heh. you can't play it too safe, bro."

Sans looked out the window, hearing the waves hit the cliffside right below them.

"we should probably get going. i gotta find amber, anyways. she took my bone when i left it in the room."

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS STARVING!"

Sans unlocked the door and opened it for his brother, who he followed out of the room. He carefully shut the door behind him.

* * *

 _ **[Michael's POV]**_

I roll over in my straw bed, smiling. I knew there was something up.

I knew I shouldn't have trusted him.

* * *

 **I know its a little short, but I didn't feel adding more to the end of this chapter would benefit the plot.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Down to the Bone!**

 **If you ever have any ideas or constructive criticism for my story, please let me know. Feel free to leave a fav or follow if you enjoyed this story and/or want to see more!**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **-Blox**


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